Eastern Shan State Special Region 4 (, ), commonly known as Shan State Special Area 4,https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/as-fighting-rages-on-mongla-becomes-shan-states-sole-gateway-to-china/ Mongla area, Lesser Mongla area or Mong La Area,https://www.irrawaddy.com/in-person/interview/whats-next-ndaa-border-boomtown-mong-la.html is a special region administrated by Peace and Solidarity Committee (PSC) of Shan State-East, and National Democratic Alliance Army. It covers territories of the entire Mong La Township, eastern part of Mong Hpayak Township and to the north borders the northern part of Wa State.
The indigenous peoples of this region are Blang, Pyin, Akha, Hani, Lahu and Tai Lue people, etc. while the lingua franca is Mandarin Chinese.
It was established by sent-down youth U Sai Leun (born Lin Mingxian). Since its active involvement into casinos and endangered wild-animal trafficking, it has been an issue for the Chinese government, which closed the several times. It has its own police force.https://time.com/17651/burmas-wild-east-is-a-debauched-land-of-drugs-and-vice-that-reforms-forgot/ It also sent police cross border to destruct a casino there, under the acknowledgement of Burmese government. This special region is notorious in southwest Yunnan as they send casino advertisement spam SMS to Chinese cellphones. Organized crime used to be common in this region.
Sai Leun maintained a good relationship with Burmese army (Tatmadaw)https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/mongla-armed-group-backs-govts-all-inclusive-peace-policy.htmlhttps://www.csis.org/analysis/dilemma-shan-state-myanmars-revolution as the Tatmadaw units benefit financially from it. As of 2026, the relations between the Sit-tat and the NDAA have increased, with the PSC campaigning for continued autonomy and collaboration with the central authorities, while also participating in the government-sponsored peace process.NDAA reaffirms goal of advanced self-administration in talks with junta delegation BNI Online, 22 June, 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.Courtesy Call: NDAA Delegation Pays Courtesy Call on President MITV, 12 August 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.NDAA says it will work together for national development One News, 18 August 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
Status Between 1989https://www.crisisgroup.org/rpt/asia-pacific/myanmar/299-fire-and-ice-conflict-and-drugs-myanmars-shan-state and 2021 the Eastern Shan State Special Region 4 was one of many Special Regions of Myanmar, the status of the Eastern Shan State Special Region 4 at that time is disputed, while it is mostly seen as a non-autonomous special region, while some other sources refer to it as an autonomous special region. In 2011 the NDAA agreed with the government of Myanmar, that they don't will become Independent.https://www.peaceagreements.org/agreements/1582/ In an article from 2021, it was seen as de facto independent. In 2022 Kyaw Tun, the Shan State Chief Minister Dr. Kyaw Tun attended ceremony of handing over citizenship scrutiny cards and household lists to the local residents in Special Region-4 in Shan State (East) under the Pan Khin Project,https://www.myanmaritv.com/news/handing-over-csc-shan-state-cm-attended-ceremony-handing-over-csc the same year, the NDAA had talks with the government of Myanmar, to recognize a "Mong La Autonomous Region".https://www.bnionline.net/en/news/political-analysts-say-agreement-recognizing-wa-state-and-mong-la-autonomous-region-will-lead Since 2023 it's again referred by medias as a non-autonomous special region.https://www.tni.org/en/article/the-creation-of-new-constituent-units-in-the-myanmar-context As June 2026, the NDAA still seeks autonomy by the government of Myanmar for the Eastern Shan State Special Region 4.https://cnimyanmar.com/index.php/english-edition/36999-ndaa-aims-for-autonomy-says-group
Name Mongla, Mengla or Meungla are different Romanization of the same Tai word, both the e and the o here should be pronounced like the Scottish accent pronunciation of u in bucks. Thus, to differentiate Mengla County in China and Mong La Township/settlement in Myanmar the locals call the former Greater Mengla/Mongla while the latter Lesser Mongla/Mengla.
Administrative divisions Mong La District (မိုင်းလားခရိုင် 勐拉县) Nam Pan District (နမ့်ပန်းခရိုင် 南板县) Hsee Lu District (ဆီလူးခရိုင် 色勒县)
References
Citations 边城勐拉, 中缅交界处的法外之地 - New York Times
External links Mongla Forum