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Aung San Suu Kyi to lead delegation to China next week
June 5, 2015, 10:26 am

The junta-drafted constitution in Myanmar bars the opposition leader Suu Kyi from becoming president [Xinhua]

The junta-drafted constitution in Myanmar bars the opposition leader Suu Kyi from becoming president [Xinhua]

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will visit China from June 10-14, China’s state media reported on Friday. Suu Kyi is keen to reach out to Beijing, Myanmar’s most important economic partner.

Elections in Myanmar are due in November 2015.

Suu Kyi, the chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD), will lead a delegation to visit China next week. China accounts for over 30 per cent of total foreign investments in Myanmar and Suu Kyi would be keen to boost her relationship with Beijing. Nearly 80 per cent of Myanmar’s revenue from the rice trade comes from exports to China

She will stay in China from June 10 to 14 at the invitation of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the International Department of the CPC Central Committee said in a statement posted on its website on Friday.

The junta-drafted constitution in Myanmar bars the opposition leader Suu Kyi from becoming president.

Her party is expected to make big gains at the polls – the first general election they have fought since they swept the polls in 1990. The then junta ignored the result.

The Nobel laureate, who has publicly declared her desire to be president, however, has been severely criticised for her refusal to come to the aid of Myanmar’s persecuted refugees, the Rohingyas.

In the past two years, thousands of Muslim Rohingya have been killed by mobs in Rakhine, Myanmar; while thousands have fled the area for fear for further persecution.

Rohingyas, a mostly stateless Muslim minority of about 1.1 million, are living in apartheid-like conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama said Myanmar needed to end discrimination against Rohingyas in order to make its fledgling democracy a success.

 

TBP and Agencies