Reuters, Yangon

The National League for Democracy was forged in an uprising against one-party rule. Its activists spent years in jail under Myanmar’s military junta. But since taking power three years ago, the party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has found an unlikely ally – the Chinese Communist Party.

The friendship has blossomed in high-level exchanges between Suu Kyi and Chinese leaders, but also in interactions between party members on visits that mix tours of container terminals or education projects with boozy dinners and shopping trips.

The trips are part of a push to make Myanmar a vital stop on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, offering to build deep-sea ports, hydropower dams and economic zones in a country desperate for investment.

Reuters interviewed more than 20 party members and lawmakers who have visited China on expenses-paid trips, through which Beijing hopes to overcome historic distrust and fears among many in Myanmar of becoming indebted to their much larger neighbour.

The invites have flowed since Myanmar’s relations with Western countries soured following their sharp criticism of a 2017 army crackdown in its northwestern Rakhine state from which 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh.

NLD stalwarts such as Aung Shin, a former political prisoner, have welcomed China’s hospitality.

“They want to show that they are not like before, so they invited us and showed us,” said Aung Shin, who has been on at least 10 junkets to China since 2013.

Despite such perks, NLD leader Sandar Min says the party’s members are not unduly influenced by the visits, which they say are useful learning experiences.

The visit would not prevent her from voicing her concerns over the New Yangon City project, she said.

Another controversial Chinese project in Myanmar is the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam in conflict-torn northern state of Kachin, which was suspended in 2011 amid concerns it would be environmentally damaging and mainly benefit China.

In October 2018, Aung Shin, the party newspaperman, led a nine-strong Myanmar delegation that visited at least five dams on China’s Yellow River.

Three other participants said they were under the impression the trip was paid for by the State Power International Corporation (SPIC), the giant state-owned enterprise behind the hydropower project.