[3]: 79 In 1941, Aung San left Burma for Japan with his colleagues, and received military training by the Imperial Japanese Army to fight against the British.

On 12 February, Aung San invited the ethnic groups and held a Panglong Conference to agree on their equal rights, which was only signed by Shan, Kachin, Chin and Karenni.

[1] The agreement was that the right of self-government and full autonomy was recognized for Shan and Karenni and autonomous status for Kachin and Chin area.

Regarding this conference, Chao Tzang Yawnghwe, a former SSA soldier, writes in his memoir that “it was a rubber-stamp providing Britain with an opportunity to abdicate all responsibilities with respect to the Frontier Areas”.

In 1958, the head of Burma Army, General Ne Win, took power and started a military rule to restore order to the continuous uprisings.

[1] However, this was short-lived, as on 2 March 1962, General Ne Win came back in power by a coup d’état and continued his military rule.

By 1964, there were four major Shan State rebel groups: Following the arrest of Sao Shwe Thaik of Yawnghwe in the Burmese coup d'état in March 1962 by the Revolutionary Council headed by General Ne Win,[4] his wife, Sao Nang Hearn Kham (Mahadevi of Yawnghwe) fled with her family to Thailand in April 1962.

Sao Shwe Thaik died in prison in November the same year and while in exile his wife participated in the independence struggle of the Shan State.

However, she could not make Noom Suk Harn and TNA agree for unification, therefore, SNUF merged with SSIA and formed Shan State Army (SSA).

[3]: 59  SSA eventually established four large base areas across Shan state, north to south and on the west to the bank of Salween River.

[3]: 132–4 In 1971, the Army’s political wing, Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) was formed to tackle the problems the SSA faced.

[3]: 29  They became a threat to the SSA from the early 1970s, as they operated exclusively in the lowlands and delta regions and by the mid-1970s, it had occupied the town on Shan-Chinese border, Kiu-khok or Wanting, and other places, in total 15,000 square miles of the Shan State.

This was to call local rebels to join the KKY forces to fight off CPB, and in return, would be permitted to engage in cross-border trade with Thailand and Laos.

Armed forces, such as the Burma Army and Shan resistance groups, as well as local villagers, are engaged in production and trafficking of narcotics.

Shan State sought to find different agro-economic methods to replace opium production under democracy, therefore, asked international support for its resistance against the military regime.

Chao Tzang Yawnghwe deplores in his memoir, "I cannot but feel that very few people are genuinely interested in seeking a solution especially when governments and international agencies have shown very little willingness to tackle the problem at its source, that is, in Shan State.

"[3]: 267  He also explains the situation as "a goose that lays golden eggs-- enriching, on the one hand, the drug syndicates and traffickers and on the other providing multi-national and international bureaucracies with more jobs, funds and good living.

On the other hand, the SSA in southern Shan opposed to the alliance with CPB, therefore, led to an internal split in SSA- the north and the south.

[3] Later, SSPP reformed a pro-communist army known as Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) and continued its fight, until the fall of CPB in 1989, when it signed the ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government.

[12] Although the Burmese government accomplished in signing a ceasefire with two of the largest armed rebel forces in the Shan State, there still has been reports of clashes.