Suu Kyi wraps up China visit

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi wrapped up her first visit to China today, a trip that saw her meet the country’s President Xi Jinping ahead of Myanmar elections in November.

Pictures of her trip posted online showed her meeting Xi and other Communist party officials, visiting the Great Wall of China and practicing calligraphy. Suu Kyi visited Beijing, Shanghai and Yunnan 

province, which shares a border with Myanmar.

Beijing was a key backer of Myanmar’s former military junta while it was under Western sanctions -- most of which have been lifted since 2011 -- and a much-needed international ally for a brutal regime that crushed dissent and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for more than 15 years.

She met Liu <g data-gr-id="15">Jiheng</g>, the Communist Party secretary of Yunnan, in Kunming, the provincial capital, yesterday, according to the Yunnan Daily.

During the meeting, Suu Kyi said Yunnan’s experience with economic development was a model worth bringing to Myanmar, according to the report, with Liu emphasising the shared ethnic populations across the two sides of the border.