Suu Kyi visit confirms potential for Myanmar- China cooperation
At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi paid a historic visit to China from Wednesday to Sunday last week.
Suu Kyi’s two major missions during the tour were increasing mutual trust and enhancing economic cooperation between Beijing and Nay Pyi Taw.
This will surely exert significant influence on the bilateral relationship in the upcoming five years and will play a positive role in regional peace and stability.
The two share a border of 2,200 kilometers and there are many cross- border ethnic minorities living between the two countries. China and Myanmar have maintained essentially friendly relations for over a thousand years.
Yet due to Myanmar’s political transition and geopolitical factors, the ties between China and Myanmar are being tested. Especially over the past few years, the constant hype of negative public opinions over China in Myanmar and suspended Chinese large- scale investments in the country are now putting the bilateral mutual trust to the test.
Since China was chosen as Suu Kyi’s first destination for foreign trip outside ASEAN, Myanmar’s new government evidently hopes it could strengthen its good neighborly friendship with China. Suu Kyi wishes to increase political dialogues and enhance mutual trust through the guidance of both sides’ leaders.
Myanmese government has recently formed a commission to examine the China- funded Myitsone hydropower project, which pulled the Myitsone project back to a legal and functional orbit to fix the rift between the two nations caused by halting the project.
Suu Kyi’s visit to Famen Temple during her tour in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, embodied a high degree of cultural recognition between China and Myanmar, which can in turn help increase political mutual trust of the two sides. During her visit, leaders from the two sides have also reached a vital consensus over China’s constructive role in Myanmar’s peace process.
As an underdeveloped country, Myanmar’s new government faces a major challenge of improving living conditions and it cannot address the issue without deepening the economic cooperation with China.
In addition, China and Myanmar have also inked a number of agreements in agriculture, water conservancy, electric power, energy and finance last week.
Myanmar is still an agricultural country. Strengthening cooperation with China in agricultural industry and water conservancy will greatly help improve Myanmar’s agricultural productivity, raise farmers’ incomes and reduce poverty.
Joint works on electricity are a highlight of bilateral cooperation. According to incomplete statistics, two- thirds of Myanmar’s population are suffering from electricity shortage, which has severely influenced the nation’s modernization. Meanwhile, the country enjoys abundant hydropower resources, and reasonably and effectively promoting Sino- Myanmese hydropower cooperation will help overcome the latter’s electricity deficit.
Moreover, multilateral economic cooperation will also become a crucial part of SinoMyanmese future cooperation. Myanmar has a unique position in the China- proposed “Belt and Road” initiative.
It is a part of the China- Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor and the Bangladesh- China- India- Myanmar Economic Corridor.
China- Myanmar joint works can play a demonstrative and leading role to other nations in the region regarding infrastructure and cross- border economic cooperation zones.
Suu Kyi’s China visit has undoubtedly created more opportunities for such multilateral cooperation.
In general, Suu Kyi has accomplished her major missions during the trip. But more effort is needed for both Myanmar and China to enhance their mutual trust and economic cooperation.
In East Asia today, where geopolitics is playing an increasingly significant role, Beijing and Nay Pyi Taw should make plans for their future from a strategic and long- term perspective.