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News > World

China Says Business Spats with Myanmar Can Be Resolved

  • A Chinese flag flutters on the border of China's Yunnan province and Myanmar's Kokang region in Nansan, March 7, 2015.

    A Chinese flag flutters on the border of China's Yunnan province and Myanmar's Kokang region in Nansan, March 7, 2015. | Photo: AFP

Published 6 April 2016
Opinion

China has been at pains to ensure its formerly close relationship with Myanmar's one-time military rulers continues under the new government.

China is confident it can resolve business disagreements with Myanmar through friendly talks, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said after meeting his counterpart Aung San Suu Kyi, amid pressure from China to resume a stalled $3.6-billion dam project.

The talks with Wang in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw were Suu Kyi's first official meeting since her appointment as foreign minister.

China has been at pains to ensure its formerly close relationship with Myanmar's one-time military rulers continues under the new government, one of the reasons for Wang's visit.

Last month, China said it would push Myanmar's new government to resume the controversial dam scheme, saying the contract was still valid.

Former Myanmar president Thein Sein angered Beijing in 2011 by suspending the Myitsone dam project, which was to send 90 percent of its power to China.

Other Chinese projects in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have proved controversial, among them the Letpadaung copper mine, which has repeatedly sparked protests from people living nearby, and twin Chinese oil and gas pipelines across the country.

With close trade and economic ties between the two countries, it was natural there would be "certain problems," Wang said, according to a statement by China's Foreign Ministry late on Tuesday.

"Myself and Foreign Minister Suu Kyi reached a consensus, that all problems can find an appropriate resolution via friendly consultations," it quoted Wang as saying, without mentioning specific projects.

The Global Times, an influential Chinese state-run tabloid, said in an editorial on Wednesday it hoped the Myitsone Dam could be revived.

"A stable Myanmar under new systems with predictable national policies is in accordance with China's national interests," said the paper, published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily.

Clashes between the Myanmar government and ethnic rebel groups in recent years have pushed refugees into China, much to Beijing's anger.

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