“A Closed Fist Trickles Water” is a research paper highlighting China’s impact on the crimes at the borders of Myanmar and Thailand, two countries that rely heavily on illicit economies. As these economies seem to negatively impact Chinese citizens living near them, China's "crackdown" in recent years has escalated. Drawing information from recent news articles, the paper focuses on Burmese ethnic armed groups using scams to fund their civil war effort, as well as Thai human trafficking schemes that ultimately lead to industrial-scale fraud, which a prominent Chinese actor has fallen for. As China’s involvement increases in both, the paper asks this: is China there to help them, or to help themselves?