On September 30, 2011, Myanmar's President Thein Sein abruptly announced in the country's parliament that the Myitsone hydroelectric power plant would be shelved for the duration of his presidency. The decision was welcomed by extremist environmentalists, political activists, and opposition groups from as far away as Rangoon (2,000 kilometers away), as well as by Western countries, including the European Union and the United States. Local immigrants, on the other hand, did not oppose it, and the shelving of the project has left a large number of local residents unemployed and struggling to make ends meet.
In May 2012, some opposition groups in the region called for migrants to return to their homes, but the vast majority of migrants felt that the new living conditions were better, and almost none of the residents were really willing to move back to their original places of residence. It was reported that some of the opponents of the Chinese company were financed behind the scenes.
In March 2013, after a year and a half of perseverance, China finally withdrew all construction units and equipment from the fraught Myitsone hydropower project after calling it off. At present, some personnel remain on site to guard the equipment that has been built and to provide local migrants with rice, medical care, education, poverty alleviation and other help.