Aung San Suu Kyi to visit China as international criticism over response to Rohingya crisis grows
Myanmese leader to travel to Beijing after nations promise closer cooperation
Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi will visit Beijing later this week, as China offers her a political and economic haven from a storm of global criticism over her country’s handling of the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s state counsellor and foreign minister, will attend the Chinese Communist Party’s in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting from Thursday until Sunday and hold bilateral talks with her Chinese counterparts, state-run Myanmar News Agency reported on Monday.
Her visit comes just days after China’s president, Xi Jinping, and military leaders hosted Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s armed forces.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was also in Naypyidaw last week proposing a “three-step” solution to the Rohingya refugee issue in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine.
More than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since August to escape conflict with Myanmar’s military.
The West has accused Myanmar’s government of “ethnic cleansing” and strongly criticised Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi for not stopping the violence.
