Earth News
written by dpa
Wednesday September 8, 2010 04:59:15 GMT
Beijing - China gave Myanmar's military leader, a pariah among most Western democracies, a warm welcome as he prepared Wednesday to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Senior General Than Shwe's five-day visit was aimed at cementing ties between Myanmar and one of its few allies, whose investment in Myanmar has surged this year and who has repeatedly sought to deflect criticism of its regime's poor human rights record.
Ahead of his meeting with Hu, Than Shwe met late Tuesday with the chief of the Chinese army's general staff, Chen Bingde, and both countries agreed to expand their military cooperation, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
"Fruitful" cooperation has brought concrete advantages to both neighbours and China's and Myanmar's militaries should push forward their traditional friendship and cooperation, Xinhua quoted the Chinese general as saying.
Than Shwe's meeting with Chen came the day he arrived in Beijing, where he was also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who in June became the first Chinese premier to visit Myanmar in 16 years.
Few governments would receive Than Shwe because of the Myanmar military government's poor human rights record, which has been internationally condemned for decades, but China prepared a huge welcome for the general and his 34-member military delegation.
Sino-Myanmar diplomatic ties have deepened over the past two decades as most Western democracies have condemned Myanmar and slapped it with economic sanctions.
Recent criticism of Myanmar has focussed on the junta's plan to hold the country's first general elections in 20 years. While those critics have said the junta was insuring that the November 7 elections would be neither free nor fair, China has called it an important step toward democracy in the country, which was once called Burma.
"China, as a one-party Communist state under authoritarian rule, is in no position to make any value judgement about whether the polls in Than Shwe's Burma are genuinely democratic or A SHAM," said Maung Zarni, a political scientist and Bangkok-based research fellow at the London School of Economics. "If Beijing does that, it would be like a pot calling the kettle black."
Western countries have shunned investment in Myanmar, but China has filled the breach, especially in energy-related projects.
Myanmar has strategic importance for neighbouring China because of its natural resources and access to the Indian Ocean. Chinese warships dock regularly in Myanmar while China's investment in the country has surged in recent years.
Four years ago, China's official investments in the country amounted to less than 200 million dollars, but so far this year, they have hit 10 billion dollars.
According to Myanmar news reports, Chinese investors recently won approval for two hydroelectric dams in the country, oil and gas pipelines to southern China's Yunnan province and a copper mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment