China turns to Myanmar as the ‘friendly giant in the neighbourhood’

When Xi Jinping arrives in the Southeast Asian nation for the first state visit in 19 years, he will come bearing gifts – billions of dollars of investment projects

China has been its closest ally for two decades, and the country presents a particular opportunity for Xi and Beijing’s broader ambitions

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Published: 7:00am, 17 Jan 2020Updated: 3:28pm, 17 Feb 2020

China’s president, on a visit to Myanmar, took in the sights with a tour of the Buddhist temples in Bagan and vowed to pour investment into the country even as the United Nations criticised the local government for violation of human rights.

That was 19 years ago and the visitor was Jiang Zemin.

On Friday, when President Xi Jinping arrives in Myanmar for the first state visit since 2001, he may well gaze upon the same temples his predecessor saw, he will repeat plans for investment in the neighbouring country, and again Myanmar faces condemnation over human rights abuses. What’s changed, though, is China and its ambitions.

In between the two visits, China leapfrogged Thailand to become Myanmar’s biggest trading partner and eventually unseated Japan as the world’s second-largest economy after the US. With that economic clout, Beijing asserted itself in international affairs – China now has more embassies around the world than any other country – only to bang heads with the West, especially the US, as its influence spread.

Then-president Jiang Zemin prepares to strike a giant bell during a visit to the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon in 2001. Photo: AP

Closer to home China has exercised claims over regions of the South China Sea, causing disputes with Asian neighbours from Vietnam to the Philippines and Indonesia.

Myanmar is different. The two countries share a 2,200km land border, China’s longest after Russia and Mongolia, and have 70 years of diplomatic relations, the longest held by the People’s Republic of China. All of which presents a particular opportunity for Xi and Beijing’s broader ambitions when he arrives in the capital Naypyidaw for his first state visit of 2020.