For more than a decade, local Chinese residents pilloried it as nothing more than an empty bridge that led to a North Korean vegetable patch on the other side.

Fast forward 12 years and dozens of trucks are now traversing the bridge linking China to North Korea, boosting trade for the reclusive regime. But it has also triggered concern that it could intensify a struggle for influence over the North between Beijing and the region’s other major power, Russia.

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The New Yalu River Bridge connects the north-eastern Chinese city of Dandong with Sinuiju in North Korea and has four lanes and stretches 3km (1.9 miles) across the Yalu river. It is expected to ease congestion on the ageing Friendship Bridge nearby.

It opened on 15 October, about a month after another major crossing – this time between North Korea and Russia.…