Officials from the southwestern Chinese province that borders Myanmar have offered cash to entice ethnic Kachin refugees to return to their war-torn homeland and threatened a blockade if the group's armed forces refuse to sign a peace deal, a Kachin religious leader told RFA’s Myanmar Service after talks in China last week.

The officials from China’s Yunnan province offered as much as 120,000 yuan (about $20,000) to each displaced Kachin refugee family who opts to return home to Myanmar. Yunnan accounts for the bulk of the 2200-km (1370-mile) China-Myanmar border, the Kachin officials said.

The offer, which came with a Chinese entreaty that Kachins accept the Myanmar government’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), was made during a March 1 meeting at the Chinese border town of Ruili between Yunnan authorities and Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) representatives, said KBC chairman Hkalam Samson, according to RFA.