A New Look at the Golden Triangle

The drug trade in Myanmar's Shan States is still going strong but the political dynamics are different . In the last decades of the 20C Shan insurgents such as Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army, the Kokang Group, the United Wa State Army and others were involved with global traffickers in order to fund an expensive campaign against a brutal regime in Burma. Most of the groups including the largest have signed cease fire agreements with the Burmese Government but these have not translated into cease fires with the Burmese Army.
Burma is backed by the Peoples Republic of China and the PLA so the border China shares with the Shan and the Wa is of strategic significance to Thailand and the U.S.A.. Historically the Siamese and the Burmese have been antagonistic, even belligerent neighbors while the Siamese often see the Shan or Tai Yai as cousins.
The idea of Shan insurgents as functionaries in the U.S.. war on drugs sounds deplorable but could provide leverage so the Shan can force the U.S.. to bring political and economic pressure to bear on Yangon and China. It remains to be seen what development will do to this unique region.
                                                   
The above map shows where the Shan States and other parts of Indo-China had belonged to Siam before Anglo and French colonialism changed the boundaries.