Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will travel to key ally China this week, both countries said Monday, in his first known trip there since seizing power in a 2021 coup.
China is a major ally and arms supplier of the junta and analysts say Beijing also maintains ties with Myanmar ethnic armed groups which hold territory along its border.
Some of those groups have seized territory from the junta in northern Shan state, disrupting traffic along a vital trade highway to China.
Min Aung Hlaing will travel to the southwestern city of Kunming on Wednesday to attend a two-day summit of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) — a group including China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
A statement from the Myanmar junta on Monday said Min Aung Hlaing “will meet and discuss with government officials of the People’s Republic of China on the friendship between the governments and people of the two countries, to develop and strengthen economic and multi-sectoral cooperation”.
The trip comes as Myanmar’s military struggles to quell armed resistance from various ethnic minority armed groups and “People’s Defence Forces” which rose up to oppose its power grab.
China also confirmed that the leader of Myanmar would attend the summit.
“Against a background of a weakening global recovery and geopolitical turbulence, the need to strengthen unity and cooperation, and to focus on development and prosperity, are becoming more prominent,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday.
“The Chinese side looks forward… to holding in-depth communication with all sides (and) promoting regional interconnectivity, trade and investment,” she said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
The summit will be chaired by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Mao added.
Testy relations
Relations between Beijing and Naypyidaw have been tested over the junta’s failure to crack down on online scam compounds in Myanmar’s borderlands targeting Chinese citizens.
The compounds were staffed by citizens of China and other countries who were often trafficked and forced to work swindling their compatriots in an industry analysts say is worth billions.
Analysts suggest Beijing later gave tacit approval to an offensive by an alliance of ethnic rebel groups across Shan state, which the alliance said was launched partly to root out the scam compounds.
Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia — another key backer and defence supplier — several times since the coup, including a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in 2022.
In August China’s foreign minister said Beijing supports the junta’s plan to hold fresh elections and return the conflict-torn country to a “democratic transition”.
Opponents say the polls will be neither free nor fair, with many opposition parties banned and clashes occurring across much of the country.
