Myanmar president plans first state visit to China

May 23, 2011, 4:40 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar President Thein Sein is to travel to China this week, his first state visit since taking office on March 30, state media reported Monday.

Thein Sein will be in China Thursday to Saturday at the invitation of President Hu Jintao, the New Light of Myanmar reported.

A Chinese delegation was the first foreign group to meet with the former general after he took office.

The leader of the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) that won the November 7 general election has replaced Senior General Than Shwe, junta chief from 1992 to 2011, as the new head of state.

Thein Sein's first trip abroad as president was earlier this month when he joined the summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Jakarta.

China is military-run Myanmar's strongest ally, and recently became the South-East Asian nation's largest private investor.

State-run Chinese firms are investing heavily in infrastructure projects, such as a 1,000 kilometre-long pipeline from Rakhine state on Myanmar's coast to Yunnan province in southern China.

China has provided Myanmar with a 2.4-billion-dollar loan to construct the pipeline.

Myanmar was ruled by military juntas from 1988, and before that by a military-socialist regime, starting in 1962.

Although now under an elected government, Western democracies had condemned the November 7 polls for failing to include the National League for Democracy opposition party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and for favouring the victory of the USDP.

The USDP is packed with ex-miliary men and ministers who served under the junta. Some 82 per cent of the new ministers are either former or active military men.

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