Myanmar Regime Tells TNLA to Surrender Another Four Towns

The Myanmar military regime is demanding that the ethnic Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) withdraw within a month from another four towns it controls in northern Shan State.

Sources said the demand came in the 11th round of China‑brokered talks between the two sides in Kunming, which were attended by senior TNLA leaders, the military’s Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Ko Ko Oo, and Chinese envoy Deng Xijun.

They told The Irrawaddy the regime insisted the TNLA vacate Namtu, Monglon, Mongngawt and Namhkam—the last a key border trade hub with China—within 30 days.

But a source added TNLA leaders “are unlikely to accept the demand, and both sides could start to prepare for battle.”

In talks with ethnic armed groups along the Chinese border, the regime has consistently framed territorial issues within the confines of the military-written 2008 Constitution. Thus in the current round, it has refused to acknowledge territory newly seized by the group, insisting instead that it limit its control to Namhsan and Mantong, which were designated as part of the Palaung self‑administered zone under the Constitution nearly two decades ago.

The TNLA has yet to issue a statement on the discussions.

Days before the meeting, the Ta’ang rebels released more than 100 captured regime troops in Kyaukme. They reportedly included Brigadier General Min Min Tun, the commander of Light Infantry Battalion 101, who was taken prisoner during the battle for Namhsan in 2023.

The TNLA’s territorial control is shrinking. In March, the group’s former ally in Operation 1027, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), seized Kutkai and forced TNLA troops out of the 105‑Mile border trade zone in Muse, leaving it with just six townships out of the 12 it captured with the help of resistance allies during Operation 1027.

In June and October last year, the regime launched a series of major offensives, recapturing Nawnghkio, Kyaukme and Hsipaw, which are major hubs on the Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Highway to the Chinese border. Meanwhile the regime-allied Chinese forced the TNLA to hand back Mogoke and Mongmit.

China apparently now favors the ethnic Chinese MNDAA over the Ta’ang, which is reflected in the regime’s fresh demands. “Most of the areas the regime wants back are adjacent to MNDAA positions, so the TNLA is under both military and political pressure,” one observer noted.

The regime continues separate negotiations with the MNDAA in Kunming and Lashio, underscoring Beijing’s role as the decisive broker in northern Shan. The MNDAA now controls all key border trade hubs on the Yunnan border, giving it leverage over the region’s most vital economic corridors.

Last month the TNLA congratulated Min Aung Hlaing when he crowned himself president and welcomed his newly rebranded pseudo-civilian government—a move which drew widespread condemnation.