Min Aung Hlaing Arrives in Beijing for Five-Day Xi
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- Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Beijing on Monday for a five-day visit at Xi Jinping's invitation, his first trip to China since being elected president.
- Min Aung Hlaing, 69, the architect of the 2021 coup that triggered civil war and a wave of international sanctions, was elected president in early April by a parliament packed with military loyalists.
- During the visit, Min Aung Hlaing will hold talks with Xi Jinping and also meet China's No. 2 and No. 3 — Premier Li Qiang and top legislator Zhao Leji.
- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said last week that China and Myanmar "have stood together through thick and thin," promoting bilateral relations to "considerable progress."
- China was not Min Aung Hlaing's first post-presidency trip — at the end of May, he embarked on a five-day visit to India, which shares a long and porous border with Myanmar, as part of a reengagement push after years of isolation.
- His journey from top general to civilian president formalized his hold on power after a coup that ended a decade of tentative democracy and sparked an exodus of foreign investors from what was once one of Asia's most promising frontier markets.
Why it matters: Beijing is rolling out the full ceremonial treatment — meetings with Xi, Premier Li Qiang, and Zhao Leji — for a leader who engineered a 2021 coup, is under international sanctions, and presides over a civil war. The visit formalizes a diplomatic lifeline to a military-aligned government that Western governments refuse to recognize, while Min Aung Hlaing's sequencing of India first, then China, shows a deliberate strategy to secure backing from both neighbors that border Myanmar.
