Kokang

Kokang
ကိုးကန့် / 果敢
Kokang Map during the 2009 Kokang incident
Kokang Map during the 2009 Kokang incident
Highest point2,548 m
Area
 • Total1,895 km2 (732 sq mi)
Elevation
1,000 m (3,000 ft)
Population
 (2009)
 • Total150,000
 • Density79/km2 (210/sq mi)
Special region 1 of the Union of Myanmar
ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာနိုင်ငံအထူးဒေသ(၁) (Burmese)
缅甸联邦第一特区 (Chinese)
Kokang
Flag of Special region 1 of the Union of Myanmar
Flag
Official seal of Special region 1 of the Union of Myanmar
Emblem
Anthem: 共赴榮昌
Map
Area de facto controlled by Special region 1
CountryMyanmar
StateShan State
Formation of the MNDAA and SR1–SS11 March 1989
MNDAA lost powerAugust 2009
MNDAA regain power5 January 2024
CapitalLaukkai
Official languages
Government
• Chairman
Peng Daxun
• Vice Chairman
Li Laobao
• Secretary-General
Song Kecheng
Area
• Total
10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi)
Highest elevation
2,548 m (8,360 ft)
Population
• 2009 estimate
150,000
CurrencyRenminbi
Time zoneUTC+6:30 (MMT)
Driving sideright
Calling code+86 (0)883
Location of the Kokang region (green) within Shan State (yellow).

Kokang (Burmese: ကိုးကန့်; Chinese: 果敢; pinyin: Guǒgǎn; Wade–Giles: Kuo-kan) is a region in Myanmar. It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and sharing a border with China's Yunnan Province to the east. Its total land area is around 1,895 square kilometers (732 sq mi).[1] The capital is Laukkai. Kokang is mostly populated by Kokang Chinese, a Han Chinese group living in Myanmar.

Kokang had been historically part of China for several centuries and is still claimed by the Republic of China to this day, but was largely left alone by successive governments due to its remote location. The region formed a de facto buffer zone between Yunnan province and the Shan States.[2] The Yang clan, originally Ming loyalists from Nanjing, consolidated the area into a single polity. In 1840, the Yunnan governor granted the Yang clan the hereditary rights as a vassal of the Qing dynasty.[2] After the British conquest of Upper Burma in 1885, Kokang was initially placed in China under the 1894 Sino-British boundary convention. It was ceded to British Burma in a supplementary agreement signed in February 1897.[3]

From the 1960s to 1989, the area was controlled by the Communist Party of Burma, and after the party's armed wing disbanded in 1989 it became a special region of Myanmar under the control of the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). Armed conflicts between the MNDAA and the Tatmadaw have resulted in the 2009 Kokang incident and the 2015 Kokang offensive.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference crossinto was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Lintner, Bertil (1999). Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948. Silkworm Books. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-63041-184-8.
  3. ^ Kratoska, Paul H. (13 May 2013). Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire. Routledge. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-136-12514-0.