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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

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Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to Beijing later this week. Photo: Reuters

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.

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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.

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The West has accused Myanmar’s government of “ethnic cleansing” and strongly criticised Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi for not stopping the violence.

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