China’s President Xi Jinping ‘meets Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday during her closely watched first visit to China, mainland media said.

Suu Kyi met Xi at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, said Xinhua news agency, which did not immediately provide details about what was discussed.

Her visit comes as China and Myanmar celebrate 65 years of bilateral relations. 

Beijing was a key backer of Myanmar’s military junta while it was facing Western sanctions – most of which have been lifted since 2011 – and a much needed international ally for a brutal regime that crushed dissent and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for more than 15 years.

However, China-Myanmar relations have cooled as the country has introduced democratic reforms and opened up economically to the West, while in recent months an ethnic insurgency in the Kokang region of Myanmar has spilled over the border into China.