Ltd. of Thailand plan to build the Ta Sang Dam in a militarized zone in the Southern Shan States. In 1996, the Mong Tai Army (MTA) surrendered to SLORC forces; it had been the largest Shan army in a 35-year war of independence. Earnest planning and exploration of the dam site began in 1997. Only today, with Shan armies at their weakest, can the dam be built. .
Though Shan armies have failed to ever create an independent Shan state, they were dormant only during the peak of British rule. They rebelled against the Burmese monarchy (1883-1886), the British (1886-1915, 1942-1943), the Burmese Republic (1958-1962), the Burmese Communist regime (1962-1988) and the SLORC/SPDC (1988-today). Located in the highlands of northeast Burma - the Ta Sang site is within 50 miles of Thailand, and 200 miles of China and Laos - the Shan have always used this unique positioning along national borders to their advantage. Shan villages can be found in Laos, Thailand, and China as well as Burma. Inside Burma this region is extremely diverse; communities of Wa, Lahu, Kachin, Karen, and Akha among others are interspersed with Shan. These groups have fought alongside the Shan, or have maintained their own independent armies. Shan armies also have been buoyed by communities of Chinese mercenaries and refugees, the losers of Yunnan's Panthay Rebellion (1855-1873) and the Civil War (1945-1949). In this way, the conflict has less of a Shan-Burmese ethnic conflict, and more of a regional conflict.
The most important factor in the endurance of the conflict is that the Shan armies have traditionally used opium production as a financial base for their operations. Following the Opium Wars in China (1839-1842, 1858-1860), the British forced the Chinese to open their markets to the opium trade. As trade legalized, and addiction to the drug rose through China and Southeast Asia, opium production in China rose, especially in the western provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan.
