individuals ignore government (NLD) directives when economic ambitions are under consideration. The company overseeing the growth of lucrative businesses in Karen State is the Chit Linn Myaing Co Ltd which itself is owned by Karen BGF. The shady workings of the Tatmadaw in present-day Burma do not stop with Karen State. In northern Shan State, through which the Chinese pipeline passes, Kokang and Ta’ang armed ethnic groups have claimed that the military is currently violating the terms of its NCA (Weng, 2019). Leading Tatmadaw commanders in the region insist that any military operations are routine and necessary to maintaining control of the region. As a TNLA spokesperson explained in an article published by The Irrawaddy, the Tatmadaw announced a nationwide ceasefire in order to create the appearance that the national ideology had shifted toward democracy but “the war-time situation on the ground has not changed at all” (Weng, 2019, para. 5). 90