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Wa State

De facto independent state in Myanmar

  • 15 min read
  • 4 chapters

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History

For a long time, headman tribes were dispersed around the Wa mountainous area, with no unified governance and gradually the region became separated from the tribal military control of the Dai people. British rule in Burma did not administer the Wa States and the border with China was left undefined.

From the late 1940s, during the Chinese Civil War, remnants of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army retreated to territory within Burma as the communists took over mainland China. Within the mountain region Kuomintang forces of the Eighth Army 237 division and 26th Army 93 division held their position for two decades in preparation for a counterattack towards mainland China. Under pressure from the United Nations, the counterattack was cancelled and the army was recalled to northern Thailand and later back to Taiwan; however, some troops decided to remain within Burma. East of the Salween river, indigenous tribal guerrilla groups exercised control with the support of the Communist Party of Burma.

During the 1960s, the Communist Party of Burma lost its base of operations within central Burma, and with the assistance of the Chinese communists, expanded within the border regions in the northeast. Many intellectual youths from China joined the Communist Party of Burma, and these forces also absorbed many local guerrillas. The Burmese communists gained control over Pangkham, which became their base of operations.

At the end of the 1980s, the ethnic minorities of northeast Burma became politically separated from the Communist Party of Burma. On 17 April 1989, Bao Youxiang's armed forces announced their separation from the Communist Party of Burma, and formed the United Myanmar Ethnicities Party, which later became the United Wa State Party. On 18 May, the United Wa State Army signed a ceasefire agreement with the State Law and Order Restoration Council, which replaced Ne Win's military regime following the 8888 Uprising. After the ceasefire, the Myanmar government began to call the region "Shan State Special Region No. 2 (Wa Region)" (Parauk: Hak Tiex Baux Nong (2) Meung Man; Chinese: 缅甸掸邦第二特区; Burmese: "ဝ" အထူးဒေသ(၂)).

In 1990s, Wa State obtained the Southern area by force. From 1999 to 2002, 80,000 former opium farmers from the northern area of Wa State were forcefully resettled into the more fertile south for food production, improving food security and laying the groundwork for a ban on drug production in Wa State. Some groups report that thousands died as a result of resettlement.

Tensions between the central government and Wa State were heightened in 2009. During this time, peace initiative proposals by Wa State were rejected by the Myanmar government. The government warned on 27 April 2010 that the WHP program could push Myanmar and Wa State into further conflict.

In 2012, Wa State began a major road construction program to link all townships with asphalt roads. By 2014, asphalt roads ran through the northern townships of Wa State and connected the Wa townships of Kunma, Nam Tit, and Mengmao to the Chinese towns of Cangyuan and Ximeng.

After the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état the Wa began to oppose the Myanmar government more directly, shifting away from their strategy of "forward defense" of supporting smaller anti-government forces militarily which was supposed to keep the Tatmadaw from violating ceasefires, with the goal of extending their political and military influence towards Central Myanmar.

When fighting in northern Shan State escalated in late October and early November in 2023, Wa State took a neutral position urging on 1 Nov for a ceasefire. The UWSP has again stated that they would retaliate against any military action against Wa.

Tensions between Wa State and Thailand increased in November 2024 over the presence of UWSA bases allegedly encroaching on Thai territory.

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