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China Burma India Theater (CBI) was the name used by the United States Army for its forces operating in conjunction with British and Chinese Allied air and land forces in China, Burma, and India during World War II.<br/><br/>

Well-known US units in this theater included the Flying Tigers, transport and bomber units flying the Hump, the 1st Air Commando Group, the engineers who built Ledo Road, and the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), otherwise known as Merrill's Marauders.
Chinese communities had existed for many centuries in rural Burma and were largely formed by migrants travelling overland from China into Burma along the north-eastern trade routes and rivers.<br/><br/>

The urban Chinese population of cities such as Rangoon (Yangon) originated largely during the colonial era when Chinese from the coastal provinces of China came by sea to work as merchants, among other professions.<br/><br/>

In 1891 the Imperial Gazetteer of India estimated the Chinese colony in Rangoon as approximately 8,000 people, and this had increased to more than 11,000 by 1901
Bhamo (known to the Chinese as Xinkai, or 'New Market'), was once an important town on the Haw caravan trade route between China and Burma. Within the Shan and Karen inhabited regions of northern and eastern Burma trade routes ran to Myitkyina, Lashio and Bhamo. Large mule caravans, some 'half a mile long' were still arriving in Bhamo as late as the 1920s.