• Burmese
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
30 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Wa State Suffers as Fewer Chinese Come to Party

Reuters by Reuters
January 23, 2017
in News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Women seen in massage shops as they wait for customers at Panghsang, Wa State. / Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

Women seen in massage shops as they wait for customers at Panghsang, Wa State. / Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

13k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

PANGHSANG, Shan State — In a remote casino in northeastern Burma, China’s pervasive campaign against graft has taken its toll. Hundreds of local traders and farmers place petty bets as low as 10 cents, outnumbering a few Chinese who were once the VIPs of a gambling hall decorated with chandeliers and Renaissance-style paintings.

“The business has been really bad since Chinese tourists stopped coming,” said casino waitress Ling Ling who was considering leaving Panghsan, capital of the self-proclaimed Wa State that borders China, to look for better paying jobs.

The three-story gambling parlor, with some 1,000 workers, offers games from jackpot slot machines to high-stakes VIP rooms featuring bets of up to $16,000. It is deep in the Wa hills in one of Asia’s poorest regions, where its majority ethnic Wa farmers earn an annual income of $115.

RelatedPosts

China’s Bet on Myanmar Junta Risks Backfiring

China’s Bet on Myanmar Junta Risks Backfiring

June 17, 2025
471
China is Systematically Dismantling Tibetan Monastic Traditions

China is Systematically Dismantling Tibetan Monastic Traditions

June 16, 2025
759
Tree-Planting Hides Logging Frenzy; Moving Mountains for Steel Production; and More

Tree-Planting Hides Logging Frenzy; Moving Mountains for Steel Production; and More

June 14, 2025
471

In the statelet the size of Belgium controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s strongest ethnic armed group, the once bustling gambling industry is not the only casualty from the falling number of high-roller mainland punters.

From shopkeepers to moto-taxi drivers, local people said Beijing’s tightening of visas for Chinese gamblers traveling to the Wa in recent years – part of the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping – has cast a shadow on livelihoods in the reclusive territory.

The Wa State is now trying to diversify its economy, which relies heavily on China as a market for its exports of rubber and metals such as tin.

Reuters visited the rugged territory in October – a rare trip by a major international news organization that offered a glimpse into the Chinese-speaking statelet of 600,000 people that is beyond the control of Burma leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government.

A UWSA soldier reflected on mirror as he sits on a motorbike in a market at Mongmao, Wa State. (Photo:  REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)

Poppy Eradication

The Wa State took shape in 1989, after the Communist Party of Burma disintegrated following a purge by Wa leaders. The 30,000-strong UWSA signed a ceasefire with the Burma army shortly afterwards and the two sides have not fought in years.

Wa leaders say the region, which used to grow opium on a vast scale, underwent an eradication campaign against the plant used for production of heroin more than a decade ago. Poppy fields were replaced by plantations, mostly rubber, as well as coffee and tea, they say.

Many plantations are backed by investors from China, alongside businessmen connected to the Wa State leadership. Their “state-supported private companies”, as described by several Wa leaders, control key businesses in the territory from gasoline to mining.

“I hope there is more foreign investment so that I can diversify my business,” said C Yang, son of a UWSA commander who owns a rubber plantation of 132 acres.

The stocky 25-year-old is typical of the wealthy, if narrow, Wa elite. The rubber plantation affords him a comfortable life in a mansion overlooking Panghsan, and fancy gadgets such as thebnewest model of iPhone and a fine-tuned Toyota Hilux truck.

All these goods are unattainable for regular citizens in Wa, where life expectancy, at 60, is 5 years below Burma and 16 years behind neighboring China. Some Wa farmers rely on a World Food Programme (WFP) operation to supplement what they can produce.

The agency, active throughout the area which has also experienced outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as tuberculosis, had planned to deliver 152 metric tons of food last year through its community asset creation program.

“We don’t have enough doctors and we are in need for medicines. We need help from the international community,” said Tun Kyi, who oversees the Wa Healthcare Bureau.

Students read books during a Chinese language lesson in a school at Namtit, Wa State. (Photo:  REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)

No Opportunities

The Wa education program is in an equally poor state. The illiteracy rate stands at 90 percent, with 83 percent of adults having less than a year of schooling or none at all, according to a 2008 report by Health Poverty Action.

That is in sharp contrast to Burma’s illiteracy rate of less than 5 percent, based on data from the United Nations.

Business owners and the Wa political elite send their children to China for schooling.

“Their parents want them to learn Chinese and to work in China, because children educated in Wa schools can’t join the Chinese education system and have no opportunities,” said Wa Wa Myint, a teacher at an elementary school of 700.

Back in downtown Panghsan, bright, neon signs dangling from low-rise hotels, massage parlors and bars light up the main street a few minutes walk from a border crossing with China.

A rowdy birthday party is under way in a two-story karaoke lounge that resembles a Roman temple, with life-size sculptures by its gate.

In a VIP room with a giant screen playing Chinese pop songs, a Wa woman, wearing jade-dotted earrings and a ruby ring, offers her guests China-imported beer, red wine and locally-made liquor.

The hostess challenges her guests to drink as much as they can.

“You can’t go home without getting drunk,” she says. “This is how we party in Wa.”

Your Thoughts …
Tags: ChinaThe United Wa State Army (UWSA)The United Wa State Party (UWSP)TourismWa State
Reuters

Reuters

...

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
98.3k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Drone Attack at Myanmar-China Border Gate Causes Over $14m in Losses
Business

Drone Attack at Myanmar-China Border Gate Causes Over $14m in Losses

by The Irrawaddy
November 27, 2023
38.5k

Jin San Jiao is latest northern Shan State trade hub in crosshairs of ethnic Brotherhood Alliance.

Read moreDetails
Brotherhood Alliance Marching Towards Capital of Myanmar’s Kokang Region
Burma

Brotherhood Alliance Marching Towards Capital of Myanmar’s Kokang Region

by The Irrawaddy
November 25, 2023
31k

Chinese embassy urges citizens to flee Laukkai Town as ethnic armies prepare to drive Myanmar junta troops from Kokang’s capital.

Read moreDetails
Junta Battalion Controlling Myanmar-China Trade Route Surrenders to KIA 
Burma

Junta Battalion Controlling Myanmar-China Trade Route Surrenders to KIA 

by Saw Reh
January 26, 2024
22.6k

Kachin Independence Army seizes another base in northern Shan State, cutting off regime troops in the border trade town of...

Read moreDetails
Has China Lost Control of Ethnic Armies in Myanmar’s War-Torn Borderland?
Guest Column

Has China Lost Control of Ethnic Armies in Myanmar’s War-Torn Borderland?

by Bertil Lintner
November 6, 2023
21.4k

The Brotherhood Alliance’s offensive against the junta in northern Shan has shut down trade and resource access, but Beijing still...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Regime Raises the White Flag in Kokang Zone on China Border in Shan State
War Against the Junta

Myanmar Regime Raises the White Flag in Kokang Zone on China Border in Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
January 5, 2024
20.4k

Surrender of headquarters in Laukkai town brings the Brotherhood Alliance another step closer to its goal of ridding northern Shan...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
The corner of Strand Road and Pansodan Street in downtown Rangoon / Tin Htet Paing / The Irrawaddy

Imagined Urban Futures of Rangoon

Demonstrators lead by the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation in Mandalay. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

Demonstration in Mandalay After Teacher’s Death

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Is TNLA, Under Chinese Pressure, Conceding Northern Shan Gateway to the Regime?

Is TNLA, Under Chinese Pressure, Conceding Northern Shan Gateway to the Regime?

4 days ago
1.3k
How the Myanmar Military’s Propaganda Efforts Have Evolved Over the Decades

How the Myanmar Military’s Propaganda Efforts Have Evolved Over the Decades

6 days ago
1.2k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Attacks to Reclaim KIA’s Jade and Rare Earth Strongholds

    Myanmar Junta Attacks to Reclaim KIA’s Jade and Rare Earth Strongholds

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • China is Systematically Dismantling Tibetan Monastic Traditions

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • China’s Bet on Myanmar Junta Risks Backfiring

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Defusing the Thai-Cambodian Border Row

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Sagaing Protesters Condemn Civilian Govt Toll Charges

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.