Xi arrives in Myanmar on big money charm offensive
NAYPYIDAW: Chinese President Xi Jinping touched down in Myanmar’s capital yesterday on a state visit aimed at buttressing the embattled government of Aung San Suu Kyi and driving through multi-billion-dollar infrastructure deals.
The wide highways and manicured lawns of Naypyidaw, purpose-built by generals under Myanmar’s junta, were dotted with red banners bearing Mr Xi’s face and greetings in Burmese and Mandarin.
Mr Xi will sign a series of mammoth infrastructure deals as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative — a global trade plan that promises to change the face of Myanmar.
The centrepiece of the so-called China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) is a $1.3 billion (40 billion baht) deep-sea port at Kyaukphyu in central Rakhine state, giving Beijing a gateway to the Indian Ocean.
A high-speed rail link is on the cards to connect the port and nearby planned industrial zone with the countries’ shared border.
China is an economic lifeline for Myanmar, a country where wariness lingers over the increasing influence of its giant neighbour.
Bilateral trade was worth $16.8 billion last year and Beijing holds the largest share — around $4 billion or 40% — of Myanmar’s foreign debt.
Billions of cubic metres of gas and millions of barrels of oil from offshore rigs are pumped each year across the country into China.
After a welcome ceremony and dinner yesterday, Mr Xi will sit down with Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing in separate meetings today.
Ms Suu Kyi made a rare visit to Kachin state on the border with China ahead of Xi’s visit.
Kachin is the site of a planned Chinese-backed $3.6 billion, 6,000 megawatt dam that was mothballed in 2011 in the face of vociferous criticism across the country.
This is thought to have been a personal slight to Mr Xi, who signed off on the Myitsone dam with Myanmar’s then-military junta as vice-president in 2009.
Activists are expected to protest in the commercial hub Yangon today against any reinstatement of the project.