China's Li Peng winds up visit to Myanmar

China's Li Peng winds up visit to Myanmar

YANGON (AFP): Chinese Premier Li Peng ended his first visit here yesterday with praise for Myanmar's efforts at "national reconciliation" and a rejection of claims that Beijing wants to expand its influence in the region.

Li, only the fourth head of state to visit Yangon since the 1988 military takeover, also said the issue of detained Nobel Peace laureate and leading dissident Aung San Suu Kyi was "entirely Myanmar's (Burma's) internal affair."

Li, also the most senior Chinese official to visit Yangon, answered reporters' questions before returning to Beijing at the end of his three-day official visit.

Analysts here called the hour-long news conference "unprecedented," noting it was the first by a visiting Chinese leader since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1950.

Li used the opportunity to dismiss western and regional fears his bridge-building visit to China's southern neighbor was intended to expand Beijing's influence in the region and towards the Indian Ocean.

"As a developing country, China is devoted and committed to its modernization," he said. "We pursue an independent foreign policy of peace. We do not seek any sphere of influence abroad."

Li also pointed out that there were no military personnel in his 100-member delegation, which included businessmen and journalists.

"We are opposed to hegemonism," the premier said. "We will never engage in any hegemonistic activities. And ... as a matter of fact, we have not stationed a single soldier abroad."

China's traditional rival in the region, India, is worried about what it sees as the Chinese navy's push toward the Indian Ocean, diplomats say, adding that the Myanmarese army and air force have been revamped since 1990 with Chinese equipment.

Asked about Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest in Yangon since 1989, Li said he did not raise the subject during his talks Tuesday with senior Myanmarese leaders.

"As Aung San Suu Kyi's problem is an internal affair of Myanmar, we do not intend to interfere," he said.

Reconciliation

Instead, Myanmar's leaders had told him during their talks that they were giving priority to national reconciliation, and "we sincerely pray for their success," Li said without elaborating.

The Myanmarese junta has negotiated separate cease-fires in recent months with most of the nation's armed ethnic minorities, which have been fighting various Yangon governments for greater autonomy since independence from Britain in 1947.

Myanmarese troops are however currently battling with Karen insurgents -- the oldest and most powerful ethnic rebellion -- and their allied Myanmarese students in eastern jungles.

The junta has also convened a national convention that for two years has been hammering out a new constitution for Myanmar. Most of the ethnic groups have sent delegates or observers to the ongoing process.

Li said his talks with Myanmarese leaders centered on bilateral relations and exchanges of views on regional and international issues of common interest. He did not elaborate.

Cross-border trade is booming between Myanmar and Yunnan, the bordering Chinese province, whose governor was among the premier's delegation.

Asked about human rights in China, Li said these are very extensive and include political rights and rights to subsistence and development.

While China's concept of human rights differs from that of most western nations, "China shares the same views and position on human rights together with many other Asian countries, and naturally with many other developing countries, including Myanmar," Li said.

"We have said that if there are differences on human rights, we can have discussions over it," he said. "But it is not permissible for anyone to try to use the issue to interfere in others' internal affairs."