113-524: The abbreviation or term UWSA may mean: United Wa State Army , in Myanmar Upper West Success Academy, former name of a school that is part of Success Academy Charter Schools , New York, N.Y., U.S.A. USMLE World Self Assessment - (simulated practice exams for step 1 and step 2) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
226-682: A dictatorship of the proletariat , as world fascism and imperialism had been weakened, making constitutional methods a real option to achieve "national liberation". Thakin Thein Pe, who had replaced Thakin Soe as secretary general, was the leader responsible for the policy paper on strategy entitled Toward Better Mutual Understanding and Greater Cooperation written in India and adopted at the party's second congress at Bagaya Road, Rangoon in July 1945. Thakin Soe broke away from
339-425: A forced relocation , away from the poppy fields, of six northern Wa districts south to mainly Shan and Lahu areas. The World Food Program (WFP) and China also provided emergency food assistance to former poppy farmers. Chinese criminal organisations in the area however may have simply switched the production line from heroin to amphetamine -type stimulants (ATS) such as yaa baa . Wei Hsueh-kang founded
452-514: A Bamar-majority leadership and headquarters in the Bamar heartland. It had minimal contact with the ethnic armies of the border areas; arrangements were made with a few Karen groups, but the party had virtually no contact with the Kachin or Shan groups which had been active since the 1950s. The CPB's dwindling membership was eventually replenished by Kachin, Shan, and Wa cadres in the early 1970s. Anticipating
565-540: A catalyst for further Chinese support of the CPB. Recommitting itself to Mao Zedong Thought, in 1965 the CPB began constructing rural bases called "Red Power areas", managed by "hardcore" activists who would encircle the cities from the countryside and eventually launch a "final seizure of power" when conditions permitted. A central party school for political training in Mao Zedong Thought was established and its first course
678-799: A ceasefire agreement was reached between the CPB and the KNU, but a military alliance did not materialise until May 1959 in the form of the National Democratic United Front (NDUF). The surrender of smaller ethnic insurgent groups hastened the creation of the Democratic Nationalities United Front (DNUF), established in April 1956 by the KNU, which by then had become dominated by the Maoist Karen National United Party (KNUP) led by Mahn Ba Zan. The leftist turn of
791-570: A desire for peace, and the move was welcomed by both the leftist opposition and conservative groups in Rangoon. Thakin Kodaw Hmaing , the revered veteran nationalist leader, formed an Internal Peace Committee which in 1958 was allowed by the government to speak on the CPB's behalf. The results of the 1956 election , where the National United Front did very well on a peace ticket, had also given
904-816: A group of young intellectuals, later known as the Thirty Comrades , to receive military training from the Japanese. Aung San and the Thirty Comrades returned to Burma in 1941 and established the Burma Independence Army (BIA) to fight against the Allies. After capturing Rangoon in 1942, the Japanese established a puppet state , the State of Burma , and later installed Aung San as its Deputy Prime Minister in August 1943. The BIA
1017-606: A main force, mobile guerrilla forces, and local people's militias, with the command of each being shared between military and political commissars. The main force was called the People's Liberation Army (PLA), homonymous with the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China founded around the same time. In September 1950, the PLA merged with the RBA regiments under Bo Zeya's command and formed
1130-463: A major Tatmadaw offensive, the leaders of the three ethnic minorities sought to unite under one organisation; the CPB was a favourable target for co-opting due to the then recent demise of its Bamar leadership. The CPB moved its activities to Burma's border with China, and by 1973 the party's membership had become predominantly Wa. Most of the CPB's new leaders had no previous contact with the party's pre-Cultural Revolution leadership, leading analysts at
1243-800: A model non-aligned, socialist Third World country developing at its own pace; Burma was a strong supporter of the 1955 Bandung Conference . Joseph Stalin 's death and the shift in Soviet policy under Khrushchev contributed to the mood of national reconciliation. U Nu then turned the communist peace offensive to his advantage and came up with a very successful "arms for democracy" offer. Tatmadaw (Burma Armed Forces) offensives in early 1956, Operation Aung Thura ("Valiant Victory") in Pakokku area and Operation Aung Tayza ("Glorious Victory") in Pathein area, had been partly successful. The year 1958 saw mass surrenders of first
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#17328525188651356-543: A new coalition between communists and socialists on 8 November 1947, urging negotiations between the CPB, the PSP, and the People's Volunteer Organisation (PVO), an association of World War II veterans which served as Aung San's private army. When the attempted coalition failed, U Nu accused the communists of gathering arms for an insurrection. The impact of communist campaigning against the treaty left its mark in Burma's decision not to join
1469-595: A plan to end drug production and trafficking in Wa State. According to an interview with Wa officials in 1994, Bao Youyi (Tax Kuad Rang; also known as Bao Youyu) became wanted by the Chinese police for his involvement in drug trafficking. As a result, Bao Youxiang and Zhao Nyi-Lai went to Cangyuan Va Autonomous County of China and signed the Cangyuan Agreement with local officials, which stated that, "No drugs will go into
1582-766: A rebellion, as had the Arakanese nationalists led by the veteran monk U Seinda and the Muslim mujahideen in Arakan. The PVO had split into "white-band" and "yellow-band" factions; the majority white-band PVO led by Bo La Yaung (a member of the Thirty Comrades) and Bo Po Kun joined the insurrection in July 1948. U Nu's government deployed the Karen and Kachin Rifles to suppress the communist uprising, and took Pyay , Thayetmyo and Pyinmana during
1695-457: A return to a Maoist revolutionary line. The majority faction was reinforced by the Beijing returnees led by Yèbaw Aung Gyi, a former Rangoon University Student Union (RUSU) leader whose detailed analysis of the party's history up until that point was adopted as the "1964 line" at a central committee meeting near Nattalin , Bago Region, from 9 September to 14 October 1964. The 1964 line maintained that
1808-652: A secret meeting in Pegu in August 1944. The AFO was later renamed the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) on 3 March 1945. Five days later on 8 March 1945, the communist commander Ba Htoo of the northwest command based in Mandalay started a rebellion against the Japanese. The rebellion escalated into a national uprising on 27 March 1945, led by the BNA under the command of Aung San. Japanese forces capitulated by July 1945, and
1921-537: A secret meeting near Dedaye in the Delta, the CPB successfully held its first congress chaired by Thakin Soe. Aung San became increasingly sceptical of Japan's ability to win the war as time progressed, and in mid-1944 he decided to switch sides, reaching out to his former comrades in the CPB. The CPB, together with the BNA and the People's Revolutionary Party (PSP) formed the Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO) at
2034-479: A sign of weakness desperate for a solution, once they arrived in Rangoon they realised it was going to be a mainly cosmetic exercise. They therefore took the opportunity to re-establish contacts and meet family and friends. Over 900 people, mostly BWPP and NUF activists, were arrested in the immediate aftermath. Thaton Hla Pe, leader of the Union Pa-O National Organisation (UPNO), former leader of
2147-587: A successor but does not comment on the arrest. The towns of Pangkham and Mong Pawk are within the area of this special region. The UWSA negotiated a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military in the 1990s, and currently backs a counterinsurgency strategy of the Myanmar Army against the Shan State Army (RCSS) (RCSS/SSA). The UWSA defied the military regime 's recent demand to disarm and participate in
2260-495: A temporary alliance to expel the invading Imperial Japanese Army from Myanmar during World War II . In the final years of the war, the CPB helped establish a leftist political and military coalition called the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL). However, the CPB fell out of favour with the more moderate socialists within the AFPFL due to differing views on how an independent Myanmar should be governed. The moderate faction of
2373-462: A unitary state (modelled after the autonomous regions of China ) and the ethnic minorities' demands for self-determination . Thakin Soe's red flag communists, meanwhile, advocated the establishment of "independent people's republics" for each ethnic group within a federal union (modelled after the Soviet Union) and, more importantly, the right of each ethnic group to secede from such a union. During
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#17328525188652486-554: A visit to Rangoon. Ne Win announced an amnesty in 1980 which saw the return of U Nu and others from Thailand. The CPB responded with an attack on Mong Yawng, but proposed talks in September after letting the amnesty expire. The first meeting took place in Beijing in October between the teams led by Ba Thein Tin and Ne Win who paid a surprise visit to China leaving the Kachin delegation in the middle of
2599-556: Is Zhao Zhongdang . In 2022, due to the advanced age of both Bao Youxiang and Zhao, Bao Youxiang's nephew Bao Ai Chan was promoted to be Deputy Commander-in-Chief alongside Zhao, who retains his position. The 2022 reshuffle will not largely change the administration and leadership of the UWSA, but signals a lesson learnt from the 1989 CPB leadership crises. The foreign affairs spokesperson role that Li Ziru played has been taken over by Zhao Guoan, another ethnically Chinese veteran. He took part in
2712-601: Is based at Pangkham with offices also in Yangon , Mandalay , Lashio , Tachilek and Mawlamyine and minor bases in Sankang and Khailong . UWSA also operated its own bank in the past. Ho Chun Ting (also known as Aik Haw and Hsiao Haw), the son-in-law of Bao Youxiang, is the principal owner and managing director of Yangon Airways and chairman of Tetkham Co Ltd that runs a chain of hotels. Close to Khin Nyunt and several other generals in
2825-551: Is cheaper and easier to manufacture than heroin . Thai authorities have denounced methamphetamine production, trafficking, and consumption as a threat to national security . It denied involvement in the Mekong incident of 5 November 2011. Poppy cultivation has declined in both northern Laos and the Wa region partly as a result of a ban imposed by the UWSP in 2005. In 1999, Bao Youxiang ordered
2938-562: Is unlike most of the ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar. On 17 April 1989, ethnic Wa soldiers, among other groups, split from the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in a mutiny and ended the long-running Communist insurgency in Burma . On 9 May 1989, the Burmese government signed a cease-fire agreement with UWSA, formally ending the conflict. The United Wa State Party was formed as a merger of
3051-596: The British Commonwealth . Yèbaw Ba Tin, the CPB's Burma-born Bengali theoretician, released a thesis in December 1947 titled, On the Present Political Situation and Our Tasks which set out a revolutionary strategy reviving the slogan "final seizure of power" from the previous January, and called for a "national rising to tear up the treaty of slavery", nationalisation of all British and foreign assets,
3164-516: The Burmese military , including the trafficking of drugs to neighbouring Thailand and Laos. The Wa have used revenue generated from the sale of drugs to finance political and economic goals, like weapons and hospitals. Using commercial concessions granted through favorable relations with General Khin Nyut , the UWSA operated illicit enterprises in the 1990s via affiliated businesspeople and enterprises. In August 1990, government officials began drafting
3277-478: The Hong Pang Group in 1998 with revenues from the drug trade after taking advantage of the privileges offered in the cease-fire deal by Khin Nyunt. Its position in the country's economy, not just the Wa State, is reflected by the multitude of businesses it owns and controls in construction, agriculture, gems and minerals, petroleum, electronics and communications, distilleries and department stores. Hong Pang Group
3390-486: The National United Front to contest the election on a "peace ticket" winning 35 per cent of the vote though only a small number of seats. The politburo 's decision to fight "for the very existence of our party" at a clandestine central committee meeting in April 1948 in Rangoon was confirmed the following month by the full plenum of the central committee at Hpyu 120 miles north of the capital. The headquarters of
3503-612: The Sino-Myanmar pipelines . Beijing's official delegate is only one layer of its approach to diplomacy with not just the central government but also the various ethnic armies along the China–Myanmar border China's involvement in the UWSA's peace process aims to create stability for its multiple large infrastructure investments and keep its natural resource trade across the border protected. The Chinese government uses former CPB forces like UWSA as proxies within Burma, and works to ensure
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3616-789: The Ta'ang Army and the Arakan Army . The MNDAA is a Kokang CPB splinter group and both the Ta'ang Army and the Arakan Army fought alongside the MNDAA in Kokang in 2015. These three groups, among others, receive Chinese weapons from the UWSA either as gifts or purchases. The United Wa State Army also works with the ULFA -ATF, an Assam resistance group which launches attacks in India through mobile bases in Myanmar. In November 2023,
3729-603: The Thai military have a long-standing business relationship with the UWSA. Despite publicly declaring neutrality, the UWSA allegedly supplies weapons (with the exception of MANPADS) to anti-Junta groups such as the Three Brotherhood Alliance. UWSA has benefited from long-standing political and military ties to China, and has a close relationship with China's security agencies. Most significantly, this provides China leverage inside Burma allowing it to push other issues like
3842-742: The UWSA or the UWS Army , is the military wing of the United Wa State Party (UWSP), the de facto ruling party of Wa State (officially known as the Wa Self-Administered Division ) in Myanmar . It is a well-equipped ethnic minority army of an estimated 20,000 –30,000 Wa soldiers, led by Bao Youxiang . The UWSA was formed after the collapse of the armed wing of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in 1989. The UWSA announced its territory as
3955-559: The Union Peace Conference – 21st Century Panglong peace talks in 2017 and 2018. Although he is from Yunnan , he was the only delegate comfortable speaking Burmese among the ethnic armies. In October 2023, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Bao Ai Chan was arrested while in China, in a string of arrests and extraditions relating to over 1,000 Chinese citizens involved in cyber scams in connection with Wa State. The UWSA has reportedly appointed
4068-465: The ethnic minority nationalists with the KNU threatening Rangoon itself in early 1949. U Nu estimated government casualties alone at 3,424 dead, including 1,352 army personnel from 1950 to 1952. He also estimated that 22,000 civilians had been killed in the violence during the same period, but Western analysts argued it was an intentional underestimation and gave a much larger figure of 60,000 dead and 2 million displaced. The first united front against
4181-572: The opium poppy . The opium poppy harvest had increased since the former drug baron and warlord Lo Hsing Han managed to rebuild his drug empire after he became the intermediary for cease-fire agreements between the military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt and the Kokang and Wa insurgents who had rebelled against and toppled the Communist leadership in 1989. In addition to the traditional Golden Triangle export of opiates , production has diversified to methamphetamine , or yaa baa , which
4294-635: The "Wa State Government Special Administrative Region" on 1 January 2009. The de facto President is Bao Youxiang, and the Vice President is Xiao Minliang. Although the Government of Myanmar does not officially recognise the sovereignty of Wa State, the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) has frequently allied with the UWSA to fight against Shan nationalist militia groups, such as the Shan State Army (RCSS) . Despite being de facto independent from Myanmar,
4407-414: The "five principles of peaceful coexistence" and the right of people "to choose their own state system"; U Nu repaid the visit the same year receiving the assurance that Chinese leaders had no contact with the CPB. Ne Win also led a military delegation to Beijing in 1957, and met Chairman Mao Zedong . A week-long visit in December 1955 by Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev appeared to endorse Burma as
4520-611: The "white flag communists" for their use of new white-coloured party flags. During negotiations the British noticed that Thakin Than Tun was the thinker behind Aung San, as Aung San often referred to his brother-in-law for his opinion. The CPB had abandoned its Browderist line by mid-1946, and a rift that had opened up between the party and Aung San with the socialists culminated in Thakin Than Tun being forced to resign as general secretary of
4633-537: The 1950s and 1960s, Thakin Soe and his red flag communists succeeded in creating amicable relations with various ethnic minority communities in the border regions of Burma, leading to the establishment of such groups as the Communist Party of Arakan and the Karen New Land Party . However, the red flags' numbers were relatively low in comparison to the CPB's, and by the early 1970s most of the red flags' cadres had been crushed by other ethnic insurgent groups such as
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4746-403: The 2010 elections , and instead proposed to declare the territory under their control as a special autonomous region. According to 2008 constitution, six townships are designated as the Wa Self-Administered Division . Those are Mongmao , Pangwaun , Namphan , Pangkham (Pangsang), Hopang and Matman Township . Although Mong Pawk is not part of it, but part of Mong Yang Township , the UWSA
4859-416: The 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution , the CPB denounced the CPSU for supporting Ne Win's "pseudo-socialism". Burma's insurgent groups, communist and ethnonationalist alike, became increasingly receptive of the Maoist concept of a " people's war ". The CPB began identifying so closely with the CCP that it became the CCP's most important ally among the communist parties in the region, more so after
4972-428: The AFPFL a jolt. On the international front, U.S. support of the Kuomintang (KMT) forces, that had crossed over from Yunnan province into northeastern Burma after Mao's victory in China, had resulted in Burma's refusal to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation ( SEATO ). Zhou Enlai visited Rangoon on his return from the Geneva Conference on Indo-China to meet U Nu, and issued a joint communique reaffirming
5085-425: The AFPFL became Burma's most influential political party in the post-war years leading up to independence and for several years after independence was achieved. Thakin Soe and Ba Tin travelled to India in September 1945 to talk to the Communist Party of India , and Thakin Soe came back convinced that armed struggle was the only way forward. Amidst widespread strikes starting with the Rangoon Police and mass rallies,
5198-527: The AFPFL became the dominant political force in Myanmar's government following the country's independence in 1948. The CPB was subsequently expelled from the AFPFL and the government cracked down on the party's political activities, prompting the CPB's leadership to flee from the capital Rangoon (present-day Yangon ). The CPB then began a four-decade-long insurgency in the countryside, which started with an armed insurrection in Paukkongyi, Pegu Region (present-day Bago Region ), and ended with an internal mutiny and
5311-432: The AFPFL in July, a position he had held since the AFPFL's inception. The CPB was finally expelled from the AFPFL on 2 November 1946 after the communists accused Aung San and the socialists of "kneeling before imperialism", selling out by joining the Executive Council, and calling off the general strike. In the end the CPB failed to achieve "leftist unity" with Aung San and the socialists led by U Nu and Kyaw Nyein within
5424-499: The AFPFL, the People's Democratic Front (PDF), was established in Pyay in March 1949, after the town was captured by a joint CPB, RBA, and PVO force. The Tripartite Alliance Pact was the next, signed by Thakin Than Tun, Thakin Soe, and Bo Po Kun at the village of Alaungdaw Kathapa near Monywa on 1 October 1952. Apart from the CPB-RBA merger of September 1950 which formed the People's Army, the agreements mainly involved demarcation of territory and terms of cooperation. In November 1952
5537-458: The AFPFL. In February 1947, Ba Thein Tin and communist student leader Aung Gyi attended the British Empire Conference of Communist Parties in London, the first time the CPB took part in an international communist forum. After denouncing the elections to the Constituent Assembly that took place the following April, the party fielded 25 junior candidates but won just 7 seats. The assassination of Aung San and his cabinet members on 19 July stunned
5650-434: The Arakanese nationalists led by U Seinda, next the Pa-O , Mon , and Shan communists, but most importantly the PVO led by Bo Po Kun. The official figure was 5,500 armed insurgents that "entered the light", of which about 800 were white flag communists mainly in Sittwe , northern Rakhine State . The one crucial exception was the KNU. Ne Win's caretaker government presided over a general election in February 1960 which saw
5763-414: The Burma National United Party and the non-communist Wa National Council in November 1989, following the CPB mutiny in spring of 1989. The UWSA is supported by China , who gives the UWSA more support than to the Myanmar government. Until 1996 the United Wa State Army was involved in a conflict against the Shan Mong Tai Army led by drug kingpin Khun Sa which suited the objectives of the Tatmadaw in
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#17328525188655876-480: The CPB and NDUF overshadowed those with other nationalities such as the Shan and Kachin delegations. Talks broke down on 14 November, when the URC presented the CPB with the following demands: Expectations had been running high, and the People's Peace Committee, set up by the NUF and supported by Thakin Kodaw Hmaing and former brigadier Kyaw Zaw , staged a Six-District Peace March in early November from Minhla to Rangoon. The marchers were cheered and applauded along
5989-417: The CPB arrived in the Wa hills of northern Burma and forged alliances with several Wa insurgent leaders. At the time, the region experienced little internecine warfare and there were few attacks by the Tatmadaw. The ethnic makeup of the CPB radically changed in the early 1970s, and the party "essentially [became] an ethnic minority organisation". Prior to the 1970s, the party was predominantly Bamar with
6102-406: The CPB as much as the rest of the country, but the party was still anxious to build a united front with the AFPFL to drive the British out of Burma, convinced that the assassination was an imperialist plot to stop Aung San from achieving leftist unity. U Nu concluded negotiations that Aung San had started with the British premier Clement Attlee in London, and the Nu-Attlee Treaty of October 1947
6215-428: The CPB remained on the move mostly in the forests and hills along the Sittang River valley, Pyinmana – Yamethin area in central Burma, sometimes north into the "Three M triangle" ( Mandalay – Meiktila – Myingyan ). Debt was abolished, and farming and trading cooperatives established in areas under their control. One year into the insurrection, the CPB's forces were reorganised along Maoist lines and divided into
6328-415: The CPB to form a splinter group called the Communist Party (Burma) or CP(B) for short. The CP(B) was popularly nicknamed the "red flag communists" as they continued to use the CPB's original red-coloured flag. The majority remained with Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Thein Pe and continued to cooperate with the AFPFL; they were nicknamed the "Thein-Than communists" by the Rangoon press and were popularly known as
6441-405: The CPB upheld a development of Marxism–Leninism which was independent from that of other countries and based on the concrete situation in Burma. At this important meeting, which 11 out of the 20 central committee members were able to attend, a unanimous agreement was reached by the attendees to reaffirm Burma's status as "semi-colonial" after her "pseudo-independence" from the United Kingdom, and
6554-424: The CPB's leaders, convinced that they were planning an uprising on Resistance Day, 27 March, only to find the CPB headquarters at Bagaya empty on the morning of. The party leadership had flown to their stronghold in Pyinmana to start an armed revolution. The CPB fired the first shots of their post-independence insurgency in Paukkongyi, Pegu Region, on 2 April 1948. Thakin Soe's red flag communists had already started
6667-403: The China-Burma border are stationed another three "divisions": The United Wa State Army has 30,000 active service men with a 10,000 strong auxiliary force. It is one of the largest cease fire groups. Monthly salary is only 60 CNY (US$ 7.5). UWSA had clashes with the Thai Army in Mar–May 2002. According to Jane's Intelligence Review in April 2008, China has become the main source of arms to
6780-473: The Chinese government, many opium farmers in Wa State shifted to the production of rubber and tea. However, some poppy farmers continued to cultivate the flower outside of Wa State. The United States government Drug Enforcement Administration labelled the UWSA as a narcotic trafficking organisation on 29 May 2003. On 3 November 2005, The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control listed 11 individuals and 16 companies that were "part of
6893-492: The KNU left it isolated from other ethnic insurgent groups, and it moved closer to the CPB despite the many staunch anti-communists in the veteran Christian leadership. The NDUF also included the fledgling New Mon State Party (NMSP) led by Nai Shwe Kyin and formed after the surrender of the Mon People's Front (MPF), the Chin National Vanguard Party (CNVP) formed in March 1956, and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) led by Saw Maw Reh and formed in July 1957. Both
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#17328525188657006-403: The KNU. The communist military offensive began to lose traction in the early 1950s; Burmese authorities outlawed the party in October 1953, and the CPB put forward the "peace and unity" proposal in 1955. The CPB combined a strong peace movement consisting of its above-ground supporters and sympathizers with proposals by Thakin Than Tun to the AFPFL government in 1956. War-weariness had led to
7119-412: The NMSP and the KNPP were founded with the help of the KNU. It was the most successful united front among the ethnic insurgent groups and lasted until 1976, when the KNU broke away from the NDUF to form the National Democratic Front (NDF). However, political differences remained unresolved as no compromise was possible between the CPB's position of regional autonomy for Burma's ethnic minorities within
7232-470: The Pa-O National Organisation (PNO), and one of the main organisers of the peace march, was among the arrested, as was Nai Non Lar, the former leader of the Mon People's Front (MPF). By the end of the year over 2,000 were believed to have been imprisoned. Almost the entire executive committees of the RUSU and the ABFSU fled to join the CPB. Frustrated with the failure of the 1963 peace talks and inspired by Cultural Revolution in China, Thakin Than Tun ordered
7345-419: The People's Army (PA). Its regular forces consisted of four main divisions, each with a thousand armed troops. Although its chairman Thakin Than Tun expressed support for the Karen people's right to self-determination , the CPB regarded the Karen National Union (KNU) as reactionaries employed by the British to destabilise Burma. The civil war was thus waged from three sides: the AFPFL, the communist PVOs and
7458-410: The Revolutionary Burma Army (RBA), led by communist commanders Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung, and Bo Ye Htut, all members of the Thirty Comrades. The CPB had 4,000 to 15,000 armed troops and 25,000 party members in 1949. The CPB's appraisal of Burma as a "semi-colonial and semi-feudal" state led to the Maoist line of establishing guerrilla bases among the peasants in the countryside as opposed to mobilising
7571-446: The Thirty Comrades and the central military committee of the CPB who had been to Rangoon on a secret peace mission before the 1958 AFPFL split, took the offer together with Bo Ye Maung and Bo Sein Tin. The KNU split in the same month between the Karen National Unity Party (KNUP) and the Karen Revolutionary Council (KRC) led by Saw Hunter Tha Hmwe. The red flag communists' delegation was the first to arrive in Rangoon in June, later joined by
7684-414: The UWSA did not sign the NCA in 2015. In April 2017, China helped the UWSA establish a seven-member alliance called the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC), after the demise of another alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council, in the wake of the NCA. Today, the UWSA maintains close links with FPNCC partners like the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA),
7797-636: The UWSA have acquired the FN-6 Surface-to-air missile to supplant the HN-5N in service, which was promptly denied by the UWSA. It is also the middleman between Chinese arms manufacturers and other insurgent groups in Myanmar. By 2012, Chinese support had increased to the point of supplying armoured vehicles such as the 6 × 6 PTL-02 assault gun being sighted in Pangkham . On 29 April 2013, Janes IHS reported that several Mil Mi-17 helicopters armed with TY-90 air-to-air missiles were supplied to UWSA by China. The allegations were dismissed by China, Thai military sources, other Myanmar ethnic sources and
7910-476: The UWSA or Wa State administration. Larger families are obligated to provide two males for the army or administration. Communist Party of Burma The Communist Party of Burma ( CPB ), also known as the Burma Communist Party ( BCP ), is an underground communist party in Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country. Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fought against British colonial forces before joining them in
8023-442: The UWSA themselves. In 2015 IHS Jane's reported that UWSA members had been photographed training with Chinese Type 96 122 mm howitzers and HJ-8 ATGMs. A Jane' s report in December 2008 stated that the UWSA had turned to arms production to supplement their income from arms and drug trafficking, and started a small arms production line for AK-47s . The UWSA requires that at least one male in each household serve in either
8136-573: The UWSA vowed to use force against armed incursions from both sides in the Myanmar civil war after Wa State was declared a neutral zone . Tensions between the UWSA and Thailand increased in November 2024 over alleged encroachment on Thai border territory. The Burma National United Party (BNUP) and, later, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) was founded and led by Chao Ngi Lai , also spelt as Zhao Nyi-lai. After his stroke in 1995, Bao Youxiang ,
8249-486: The United Wa State Army became involved in the Kokang incident , a violent conflict with Burma's military junta 's Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw). This was the largest outbreak of fighting between ethnic armies and government troops since the signing of the cease-fire 20 years earlier. Myanmar signed a peace deal with the UWSA in 2013 in the leadup to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). However,
8362-598: The United Wa State Army, displacing traditional black market sources in South East Asia such as Thailand and Cambodia . Arms transfers to the UWSA from China are directed from the highest level in Beijing. Jane's reported in 2001 that the UWSA had acquired HN-5 N surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) from China as part of the build-up near the Thai border where they were reported to be operating 40–50 laboratories manufacturing yaa baa . In November 2014, Janes further reported that
8475-523: The Wa State officially recognizes Myanmar's sovereignty over all of its territory. In 1989 the two parties signed a ceasefire agreement, and in 2013 signed a peace deal. As the largest non-state armed group in Myanmar, it has effectively led the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC) since 2017, representing nearly every pre- 2021 non-ceasefire signatory armed groups. In not seeking independence or secession, UWSA
8588-461: The abolition of all forms of landlordism and debt, the dismantling of the state bureaucracy and its replacement with a people's government, and alliances and trade agreements with "democratic China, fighting Vietnam and Indonesia " and other democratic countries resisting " Anglo-American imperialist domination". A twofold strategy would be followed: an escalating campaign of strikes by workers and government employees in Rangoon and other cities, and
8701-581: The area. During this conflict the Wa army occupied areas close to the Thai border, ending up with the control of two separate swathes of territory north and south of Kengtung . UWSA is one of the 17 armed ceased fire groups that attended long National Convention orchestrated by Myanmar military. In 1990s the Wa Women's Association established an orphanage in Pangkham for children's whose parents were killed in fighting between UWSA and Shan forces. In August 2009,
8814-514: The drugs they produce are not smuggled into China. Wa State has benefited from substantial Chinese tourism, turning Mong La into a Chinese tourist hub. China also helped the UWSA establish themselves as the de facto leaders of the FPNCC. The Chinese also supply military hardware, arms, and training to the UWSA. The United Wa State Army (UWSA) has five "divisions" deployed along the Thai-Burma border: On
8927-627: The entire route by large crowds chanting anti-government slogans, and given food parcels collected by the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU) and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU). When they reached Rangoon at a mass rally of 200,000 in front of city hall, speakers openly supported the NDUF's demand to keep its weapons and territory. Although at first the CPB and NDUF had misinterpreted Ne Win's peace offensive as
9040-694: The establishment of "liberated" areas in the countryside to be defended by Red Guards consisting of PVOs trained in guerrilla warfare . February 1948 saw a wave of strikes in Rangoon by the All Burma Trade Union Congress (ABTUC) backed by the CPB, and in March 1948 a 75,000-strong mass rally by the All Burma Peasants Organisation (ABPO) took place in Pyinmana . U Nu ordered the arrest of
9153-518: The establishment of a broad alliance that would include the Soviet Union . It followed the popular front line advocated by Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Dimitrov at the seventh congress of the Comintern in 1935. This was against the prevailing opinion of the nationalist We Burmans Association ( Dobama Asiayone or the "Thakins"), including Aung San, who had secretly left Burma in 1940 with
9266-503: The failed 1963 peace talks, were killed under the orders of Thakin Than Tun. The CPB's leadership conducted a review of its "peace and unity" line in 1964. They did so for several reasons, including the failure of the 1963 peace talks, the government's intensification of its campaign of political repression and military offensives, and most importantly Ne Win's founding of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) with
9379-504: The financial and commercial network of designated significant foreign narcotics trafficker Wei Hsueh-kang and the United Wa State Army (UWSA)." The UWSA is said to be the largest drug-producing organisation in Southeast Asia . The UWSP on its part blamed both the Ne Win military government and the CPB for using the Wa as "pawns in the violent destructive games" and encouraging them to grow
9492-612: The help of former communists. The CPB's willingness to carry out an armed struggle was the main difference between it and the above-ground leftist opposition parties such as the BWPP and NUF. Thakin Ba Tin, Yèbaw Htay, and Bo Yan Aung led the minority faction that questioned the need to continue the armed struggle, while Thakin Than Tun, Thakin Zin, Thakin Chit, and Bo Zeya formed the majority faction which argued for
9605-477: The international society (from Wa State); no drugs will go into China (from Wa State); no drugs will go into Burmese government-controlled areas (from Wa State)." However, the agreement did not mention whether or not Wa State could sell drugs to insurgent groups. In 1997, the United Wa State Party officially proclaimed that Wa State would be drug-free by the end of 2005. With the help of the United Nations and
9718-784: The junta, he was also involved in gems auctions and several large construction projects with the Yangon City Development Council. He was reported to have fled to Pangkham following the arrest of his known associates in a drug-related offence in January 2009. Aik Haw was included in the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List published by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on 25 November 2008. Former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra and
9831-574: The latter half of 1948. The Karen National Union (KNU) rebelled at the end of January 1949 when Army Chief of Staff Smith Dun, an ethnic Karen , was replaced by Ne Win , a socialist commander and senior member of the Thirty Comrades after Aung San and Bo Let Ya. The Mon joined the Karen shortly afterwards, as did the Pa-O in Shan State . Three regiments of the Burma Rifles also went underground and formed
9944-617: The military commander of the UWSA, took over leadership, while Chao remained the General-Secretary of the United Wa State Party (UWSP) until he died at the age of 70 in 2009. Ai Xiaoxue, as the founder of the Wa National Council (WNC), was also instrumental in the merger establishing the UWSA with the BNUP. He formed the WNC with Maha Hsang Wiang Ngeun, his brother-in-law, in 1984. His group was
10057-613: The new British governor Hubert Rance offered Aung San and the others seats in the Executive Council. Aung San initially refused the offer but eventually accepted it in September 1946. In February 1946 Thakin Soe denounced the CPB's leadership, particularly Thakin Thein Pe, accusing them of Browderism , the form of revisionism espoused by Earl Browder , leader of the Communist Party of the United States . Browder argued that armed revolution would no longer be necessary to establish
10170-672: The nucleus of UWSA's 171 Military Region near the Thai border. He died at the age of 78 in Mandalay on 29 October 2011. Today, Bao Youxiang remains the Commander-in-Chief, running the UWSA with his brothers Bao Youyi and Bao Youliang. Youyi, who became the deputy-general secretary of the UWSP in 2005, holds an important position in the army. Youliang manages the headquarters of the northern Wa hills in Möng Mao The first Deputy Commander-in-Chief
10283-455: The other Bengali founding member of the CPB besides Yèbaw Htay, was killed in action later the same year, near Hpyu in the Pegu Yoma . On 24 September 1968, while on the run from government troops, Thakin Than Tun was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards, who later surrendered to Ne Win's government. The assassin had joined the CPB just two years prior as an army deserter. In the late 1960s,
10396-412: The party to begin its own "Cultural Revolution". The party abandoned its previous position of "peace and unity" and returned to a revolutionary Maoist line. A mass campaign of purges and summary executions immediately followed, characterised by the Rangoon press as a policy of "purge, dismiss, and eliminate". Much of the party's old guard, as well as several student leaders who had joined the CPB after
10509-484: The party's jungle headquarters in the Pegu Yoma near Paukkaung, where the leadership, reunited after 15 years, held a historic meeting of the central committee. Talks began on 2 September after the CPB delegation headed by the general secretary Yebaw Htay and the People's Army's chief of staff Bo Zeya arrived on 28 August. A second team headed by Thakin Zin, politburo member and secretary of the NDUF which agreed to negotiate as one team, arrived on 20 September. Meetings with
10622-944: The party's leadership fleeing to China . Following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état , the CPB's cadres rearmed themselves and reentered Myanmar. The CPB subsequently announced that it had begun a " people's war " against the State Administration Council , the military junta established after the coup. The CPB was established in a secret meeting attended by seven men in a small room in Barr Street, Rangoon, on 15 August 1939. The attendees were Thakin Aung San , Thakin Ba Hein , Thakin Bo, Thakin Hla Pe (Bo Let Ya), Thakin Soe , Yèbaw Ba Tin (H. N. Goshal), and Yèbaw Tun Maung (Amar Nag). An armed wing
10735-587: The primacy of the armed struggle against Ne Win's "armed counter-revolution". The party would establish a broad united front between the country's ethnic minorities and peasants, with the key task being party building. The CPB sided with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from the onset of the Sino-Soviet split , rejecting the 1955 "revisionist" line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). On
10848-501: The red flag leader Thakin Soe himself from Arakan in August. After just three meetings the talks were abruptly ended by the URC on 20 August and the red flag communists were flown back to the Arakanese capital Sittwe . Three CPB teams led by Bo Zeya, Yebaw Aung Gyi, Thakins Pu, and Ba Thein Tin arrived in July and September by air from China. These "Beijing returnees" were allowed to travel to
10961-666: The return of U Nu to office after his faction of the Clean AFPFL, renamed the Union Party , won a landslide majority over the Stable AFPFL. Parliamentary democracy this time, however, lasted just two years before Ne Win staged a coup d'état on 2 March 1962 . A major crackdown on the above-ground opposition followed, with most of the remaining leaders of the AFPFL and ethnic community leaders being rounded up and imprisoned. A peaceful student-led protest at Rangoon University on 7 July 1962
11074-438: The same fate the next month. Ne Win's government took advantage of the chaos and confusion within the CPB and launched a massive military offensive against the party in 1968, which resulted in the deaths of several more senior CPB officials. Bo Zeya, by that time the chief of staff of the People's Army, was killed in action on 16 April 1968, in a battle on the city borders of Pyay and Tharrawaddy . Yèbaw Tun Maung (Dr. Nath),
11187-415: The start of China's Cultural Revolution, which the CPB replicated. The CPB's Cultural Revolution was perceived by many Burmese as an attempt by China to intrude into Burmese affairs, a sentiment which led to the violent 1967 anti-Chinese riots in Burma . By the time the riots were quelled, 31 Chinese civilians had been killed and several Chinese-owned businesses had been burned down. The riots in turn were
11300-563: The talks in Rangoon. At the second meeting headed by Thakin Pe Tint of the CPB and Maj. Gen. Aye Ko of the BSPP the following May in Lashio , three new conditions were put on the table by Aye Ko: The CPB was told that according to Article 11 of the 1974 Constitution which had established Burma as a one-party state there was no place for another political party. Ne Win ended the peace talks on 14 May and let
11413-626: The time to regard the pre- and post-Cultural Revolution parties as "two different organisations". The CPB had 10,000 to 14,000 troops during the 1970s. Its base in the Pegu Yoma was destroyed in a 1975 Tatmadaw offensive. Shortly after Burma resigned from the Non-Aligned Movement in protest against Soviet and Vietnamese "manipulation" at the September 1979 Havana Conference, the Chinese Foreign Minister Huang Hua paid
11526-797: The title UWSA . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=UWSA&oldid=766426881 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages United Wa State Army Non-state allies Non-state opponents The United Wa State Army ( Parauk : Kru' Naing' Rob Rom' Hak Tiex Praog , simplified Chinese : 佤邦联合军 ; traditional Chinese : 佤邦聯合軍 ; pinyin : Wǎbāng Liánhéjūn ; Burmese : ဝပြည် သွေးစည်းညီညွတ်ရေး တပ်မတော် , IPA: [wa̰ pjì θwésí ɲìɲʊʔjé taʔmədɔ̀] ), abbreviated as
11639-429: The university and high school students who would lead the party's majority faction in purging their opponents. Several senior party officials were labelled "revisionists" and purged during the CPB's Cultural Revolution. Thakin Ba Tin and Yèbaw Htay were suspended from the politburo on 27 April 1967, while a number of other senior members, such as Yèbaw Ba Khet, left the party, sensing the impending danger. Thakin Ba Tin
11752-456: The urban proletariat , although it continued to support above-ground leftist opposition parties such as the Burma Workers and Peasants Party (BWPP) led by trade union leaders Thakins Lwin and Chit Maung, and dubbed "crypto-communists" or "red socialists" by the Rangoon press. They tried unsuccessfully to bring the communists back into mainstream politics, and in 1956 formed an alliance called
11865-427: Was Li Ziru, an ethnically Chinese former Red Guard volunteer. He remained with the CPB through the 1970s when many Chinese CPB members returned to China and eventually joined the UWSA serving until his death in 2005. It is plausible that Li and other ethnic Chinese remained in the CPB splinter groups because China wanted to maintain influence even after the mutiny of 1989. The group's Deputy Commander-in-Chief today
11978-591: Was brutally suppressed by the Tatmadaw, ending in a massacre of over 300 students by the students' accounts. In the mid-1960s the United States State Department estimated the CPB's membership to be approximately 5,000. As head of the Union Revolutionary Council (URC) government, Ne Win launched a peace offensive starting with a general amnesty on 1 April 1963. Bo Ye Htut, a member of
12091-525: Was condemned as a sham by the communists, the bone of contention in particular being the Let Ya-Freeman Defence Agreement, appended as an annexe to the treaty. It provided for an initial period of three years for a British military training mission to remain in the country and a possible future military alliance with Britain. This was to the CPB proof of British intention to subvert Burma's sovereignty and U Nu's capitulation. U Nu called for
12204-564: Was formed shortly afterwards which fought against British colonial rule and then the invading Imperial Japanese Army upon the start of the Burma campaign of World War II . While in Insein Prison in July 1941, Thakin Soe and Thakin Than Tun coauthored the Insein Manifesto , which declared fascism "the major enemy in the coming war" and called for temporary cooperation with the British and
12317-642: Was reorganised as the puppet state's armed forces, the Burma National Army (BNA). Thakin Soe had gone underground in the Irrawaddy Delta to organise armed resistance soon after the invasion, and Thakin Than Tun as Minister of Land and Agriculture was able to pass on intelligence to Thakin Soe. Thakin Thein Pe and Tin Shwe made contact in July 1942 with the exiled colonial government in Simla , India. In January 1944 at
12430-543: Was strongly against to give away that area from its control because it serves as a link with its ally, the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) in Mongla . Hopang and Matman are not under UWSA control. UWSA announced its territory as Wa State Government Special Administrative Region in January 2009. The cease-fire agreement allowed the United Wa State Army to freely expand their logistical operations with
12543-497: Was summarily tried and executed on 18 June 1967, followed by Yèbaw Htay, whose own son formed part of the execution squad. They were dubbed "Burma's Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaochi ", respectively. Thakin Than Tun and the remaining politburo passed a resolution on 15 December 1967 to adopt the "intraparty revolutionary line" and ordered party cadres across the country to carry out their own purges. Bo Yan Aung , who accompanied Aung San to Xiamen in search of military training abroad and
12656-491: Was taught on 25 March 1965. These efforts by the CPB were openly supported by the CCP, which provided the CPB with arms and funding during the 1960s and 1970s. However, growing dissension within the party prompted Thakin Than Tun, Thakin Chit, and the Beijing returnees to meet on 16 August 1966 to decide on a strategy to remedy this "issue". Drawing on the practices of China's Red Guards , they established youth teams and handpicked
12769-525: Was the first of the Thirty Comrades, was the next major victim of the purges on 26 December 1967. In August 1968, Bo Tun Nyein, who had led the executions of Thakin Ba Tin, Yèbaw Htay and Bo Yan Aung, was himself executed after being charged with "trying to set up a rival party headquarters". Former leaders of the RUSU, such as Aung Thein Naing (nephew of Bo Yan Aung) and Soe Win (son of Ludu U Hla and Ludu Daw Amar ), met
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