Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Jan 18 (AFP/APP): China and Myanmar inked dozens of mammoth infrastructure and trade deals after a meeting Saturday between President Xi Jinping and fallen rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi, as Beijing doubles down on its support for a government under fire for its treatment of Rohingya Muslims. The Chinese leader’s two-day state visit to Myanmar’s purpose-built capital comes as Western investors cast a wide berth around the country due to the Rohingya crisis. A 2017 military crackdown on the Muslim minority, which UN investigators have called genocide, forced some 740,000 people over the border into Bangladesh. Beijing has stood strongly beside Myanmar and the Asian giant is now the country’s largest investor even as distrust of its ambitions lingers among the public. More than 30 agreements were signed Saturday on Xi’s final day of his visit — with Suu Kyi and Xi seated across from each other on long tables alongside related ministers. Details on the amount of the package were scant but among the 33 deals was a concession and shareholders agreement on the $1.3 billion-dollar Kyaukhphyu deep-sea port and economic zone. There was also a letter of intent for “new urban development” in Myanmar’s biggest … Continue reading China and Myanmar ‘stand together’ despite Rohingya backlash