Origin | Myanmar opposition leader to visit China between June 10 and June 14
Supporters give flowers to Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a visit to Mawlamyaing township in Mon state on May 16, 2015. PHOTO: SOE ZEYA TUN/REUTERS
SHANGHAI—Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is making a groundbreaking visit to China next week, as Beijing looks for fresh ways to bolster relations with its southern neighbor amid business and border disputes.
Ms. Suu Kyi will make a long-planned, first trip to China between June 10 and June 14, according to a Chinese government statement on Friday and her spokesman.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate will travel as the head of her party, the National League for Democracy Party, and will be hosted at the invitation of China’s ruling Communist Party, according to a statement from its liaison section. Her party’s spokesman, Nyan Win, said Ms. Suu Kyi expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit.
China’s relations with Myanmar have been tested since the Southeast Asian nation’s government under President Thein Sein initiated a raft of liberalization policies around 2011, including greater tolerance for Ms. Suu Kyi as a political force. Myanmar is scheduled to hold elections in November, in a vote that is expected to add to Ms. Suu Kyi’s political power. Her party is expected to gain a significant number of seats in the legislature. Widely popular, Ms. Suu Kyi is seeking the presidency, though she’s disqualified from assuming the office under the current constitution.
Myanmar’s steps toward openness have received diplomatic approval from the U.S. and other governments, but appear to have weakened China’s once prominent influence in a strategically located, mineral-rich country that is now attracting global investors.
Beijing appeared taken by surprise in 2011 when Myanmar suddenly suspended plans to allow a Chinese company to build a massive dam that would primarily supply power across the border to Yunnan province. Ms. Suu Kyi had signaled opposition to the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project.
Beijing is looking for reassurance the dam can go ahead, along with greater Chinese participation in a planned deep-water port on Myanmar’s western coast and a railway expansion.
More recently, border issues have also colored relations. Skirmishes between the Myanmar military and Kokang rebels on China’s border have occasionally spilled into Yunnan. In March, Beijing said five of its citizens there were killed by bombs dropped from military planes.
Though Myanmar’s government has blamed the rebels for the cross-border activity, Beijing appeared to send a new warning this week when it announced that airspace around the China-Myanmar border would be closed because the People’s Liberation Army planned live-fire ground-to-air combat drills in Yunnan.
—Shibani Mahtani in Yangon, Myanmar contributed to this article.