Sai Leun (; ; also known as Sai Lin; born Lin Mingxian; 26 December 1948 – 7 August 2024), commonly known as U Sai Leun, was the chairman of the

National Democratic Alliance Army The National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) is an insurgent group in eastern Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). It is the armed wing of the Peace and Solidarity Committee (PSC). History The Mong La area had been under the control of several wa ...

(NDAA) and the leader of the Shan State Special region 4.

Biography

Sai Leun's official biography states he was born in

Pang Hseng Pang Hseng, also known as ''Pan Saing'', ''Kyu Koke'' and ''Kyu-hkök'', is a town in Mu Se Township, Mu Se District, northern Shan State, Myanmar. On 2 November 2023 it was reported that the town had come fully under control of the Brotherhood ...

, Shan State, Burma on 26 December 1948. His father was a Chinese from

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

; his mother was of a native Tai. Other sources reported that he was born on the Chinese island of Hainan. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

in the 1960s, he moved through

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

into

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

and then joined to help strengthen the

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 fo ...

(CPB). He has until now enjoyed considerable economic success in Mong La. He became a field commander in CPB zone 815, or present-day

Mong La Mong La or Mongla ( ; zh, c=勐拉, p=Měnglā), also known as Little Mong La ( zh, c=小勐拉, p=Xiǎo Měnglā, links=no) to distinguish it from neighbouring Mengla County in China, is the capital of Mong La District and the administrative s ...

. When the party disintegrated after the Wa rank-and-file revolted against its leadership in 1989, he headed one of the largest breakaway factions, the

. He was one of the several ex-CPB commanders to sign a ceasefire with the government in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

, allowing the former communist the opportunity to create his own fiefdom centred first on the opium trade and then gambling as Special Region 4 became "opium free" in 1997. To placate Sai Leun and guarantee he would not take up arms again, Burmese authorities granted him generous terms. Mong La became an autonomous zone and his well-equipped private army of several thousand men retained its arms. Additionally, he was given several business concessions: the tacit permission for the opium trade being the most lucrative. As the billboard commemorates,

Khin Nyunt Khin Nyunt (; ; born 23 October 1939) is a retired Burmese army general widely recognized for his influential role in shaping Myanmar's political dynamics. Serving as the Chief of Intelligence and Prime Minister of Myanmar from 25 August 2003 ...

flew in to seal the pact with a shady handshake. Soon new refineries in his area went into operation. By the early-1990s Sai Leun headed one of the most powerful drug syndicates in northern Burma with an output of one to two thousand kilogrammes of pure heroin annually. For years he was high on the hitlist of the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

. Sai Leun made a few abortive attempts to develop traditional business interests in the city. He invested some $US4 million in a sugar mill outside Mong La, only to find that no market existed for the sugar. A similar attempt to cultivate new varieties of rice also faltered when he failed to attract Chinese buyers. Sai Leun's construction business,

Asia Wealth Company Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, has built a new sealed road that links Sop Lwe to the outside world. Sai Leun was married to Nang Yin (), the eldest daughter of

Pheung Kya-shin Pheung Kya-shin (; ; 26 January 1932 – 16 February 2022) was the chairman of the Shan State Special Region No. 1 in Myanmar (Burma) and the leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) from 1989 to 2009. Biography Pheung w ...

, the former chairman of the

Shan State Special Region 1 Kokang (; ) 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 . The capital is Laukkai. K ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

and leader of the

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) is an armed Insurgency, resistance group in the Kokang region of Myanmar (Burma). The army has existed since 1989, having been the first one to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese gov ...

(MNDAA). On 7 August 2024, Sai Leun died in China after battling lung cancer. He was 75.Mongla Army Founder Dies of Lung Cancer

The Irrawaddy ''The Irrawaddy'' () is a news website by the Irrawaddy Publishing Group (IPG), founded in 1990 by Burmese exiles living in Thailand. As a publication produced by former Burmese activists who fled violent crackdowns on anti-military protests in ...

. August 9, 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sai, Leun 1948 births 2024 deaths Burmese people of Chinese descent Burmese warlords Deaths from lung cancer in China

Lin Mingxian Sai Leun (; ; also known as Sai Lin; born Lin Mingxian; 26 December 1948 – 7 August 2024), commonly known as Burmese names#Honorifics, U Sai Leun, was the chairman of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and the leader of the Shan Stat ...

Biography

See also

References