Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to begin her first visit to China on June 10, at a time of tension between the two countries.
Aung San Suu Kyi will meet President Xi Jinping and PM Li Keqiang, but no other details have been provided.
Relations between Myanmar (also known as Burma) and China have cooled in recent years, partly because of violence near their mutual border.
Myanmar has been fighting rebels in its eastern Kokang region, which borders China’s Yunnan province.
China is concerned about violence spilling over the border. At least five people in Yunnan died in March when an aircraft from Myanmar dropped a bomb on a sugar cane field.
China sent patrols to the border in response.
The Chinese government department handling Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit would not be making any details of the trip public nor inviting media, other than state media, to any events.
This visit is meant to improve ties between Myanmar’s opposition leader and China but she will be closely watched for various issues.
Many are already calling on Aung San Suu Kyi to recognize her similarities to fellow Nobel Peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo during her visit.
Chinese dissident and writer Liu Xiaobo is serving an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power”.
While Myanmar’s military junta was under Western sanctions and Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest, China remained a loyal ally.
Since reforms were introduced in 2011, the government of President Thein Sein has allied itself closely with the US, although China continues to help develop major infrastructure projects in Myanmar.
Given the possibility that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party will do well in upcoming elections, Beijing is determined to put pragmatism first and build a relationship with a woman whose politics it deplores, she adds.
As head of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to play a key role in the presidential elections this November.
Aung San Suu Kyi is unlikely to run for president, however, as a clause in the constitution blocks her from standing because her husband and children are foreign citizens.
Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has been sentenced to 11 years in jail on fraud charges by a court in China.
The lawyer defending Liu Hui said the jail term was out of all proportion to the alleged offence.
He said it should have been treated as a civil dispute, not a criminal matter.
Liu Xiaobo was already in jail when he won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for campaigning for peaceful democratic change in China.
Since then his wife, Liu Xia – sister of Liu Hui – has been held under strict house arrest in what she says is an official vendetta against his family.
This latest sentencing of a close family member is being seen as further political persecution.
It comes at the same time as China’s President Xi Jinping is in America for talks with President Obama, a summit at which the US side says the issue of human rights is being raised.
Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has been sentenced to 11 years in jail on fraud charges
The court in Huairou, north-east of Beijing, convicted Liu Hui, a manager in a property company, of defrauding a man of 3 million yuan ($490,000) along with a colleague.
“As Liu Hui’s defence attorney I definitely do not approve of this verdict, because we see this fundamentally as a civil issue, and it fundamentally does not constitute criminal fraud,” lawyer Mo Shaoping told reporters.
He said Liu Hui maintained his innocence.
A tearful Liu Xia accused the authorities of persecuting her family.
“I absolutely cannot accept this. This is simply persecution,” she said before being driven away from the court.
“This is completely an illegal verdict.”
She said she had “completely lost hope” in the government, adding: “I can’t even leave my house.”
Police pulled journalists away from the car as Liu Xia was driven off.
Liu Xiaobo, who won the prize despite fierce Chinese opposition, was jailed in 2009 for helping to draft a manifesto – Charter 08 – calling for political change.
He is currently serving 11 years in jail for inciting the subversion of state power.
Liu Xia, also a known activist, has been living in her Beijing apartment with no internet or phone access and limited weekly visits with family.
She had been allowed to leave her apartment to attend the court hearing.
Liu Hui, brother-in-law of jailed Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, is being held on fraud charges, his lawyer says.
Liu Hui was detained in January over a property dispute, his lawyer Mo Shaoping said, adding that the evidence against him was “insufficient”.
Liu Xiaobo was sentenced in 2009 for helping to draft a manifesto – Charter 08 – calling for political change.
Liu Xiaobo is currently serving 11 years in jail for inciting the subversion of state power
His wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest ever since he was awarded the Nobel prize two-and-half years ago.
Confined to her Beijing apartment with no internet or phone access, and limited to weekly visits to family members, Liu Xia has described her house arrest as a painful experience.
Liu Xiaobo is currently serving 11 years in jail for inciting the subversion of state power. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 despite the Chinese government’s fierce opposition.
“[Liu Hui] should face trial soon, within a month,” Mo Shaoping told the AFP news agency.
The lawyer could not confirm whether the charges were connected with the activities of his brother-in-law, but said he had been under constant “surveillance by public security units” in recent months, AFP reports.
Some 134 Nobel laureates and Chinese activists wrote to Xi Jinping, the new head of the Communist Party, in December asking for Liu Xiaobo’s release.
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