Myanmar’s Suu Kyi Heads to China With Dam Project Clouding Ties

She will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during her trip. How will it affect China-Myanmar relations? Ms Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace laureate but she is not expected to raise the case of her fellow laureate Liu Xiaobo, who has been in prison since 2008 for subversion.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also chairperson of the Central Committee for Holding the Panglong Conference, has called for continued coordination and cooperation on preparatory work being carried out by the government in order to successfully hold the conference, saying that the Panglong Conference is the first step toward a robust Union.

The trip will last four days.

The Myitsone hydropower project on the Irrawaddy River was jointly funded by China and Myanmar, but was halted by then-president Thein Sein’s military junta in 2011 on environmental grounds, and it proved a major setback to relations between China and Myanmar.

Q: It is learnt that State Counsellor is a post newly created by this government of Myanmar.

According to officials, the five-day visit will tackle a new and delicate era in relations, including development aid and Myanmar’s upcoming complex peace process involving the government, the military and ethnic armed groups.

She is to visit Chinese cities besides Beijing during her tour.

“Both Myanmar and China know, as Myanmar’s northern neighbour, China can help Myanmar in ways that the U.S. cannot”, Mr Ji Qiufeng, a professor of worldwide relations at Nanjing University, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. She took over the roles of Foreign Affairs Minister and President’s Office Minister in March 2016 and has been serving as State Counselor from April 2016.

The visit is Suu Kyi’s second to China.