Experts said they believe the visit to China of the commander-in-chief of Myanmar's Defense Services is aimed at discussing the peace process in northern Myanmar and to seek China's support for the Myanmar military.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing will be leading a high-level military delegation to China for the official visit.
Min left for Beijing on Sunday after visiting Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, a border province with Myanmar, on Friday and Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Saturday, according to his Facebook page.
From October 28 to November 3, he will hold talks with Chinese State and military leaders on regional and international issues as well as military-to-military relations, Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, told a monthly briefing on Thursday.
Min will put peace in northern Myanmar high on his agenda during his meeting with Chinese leaders as he seeks further support from China, which is considered vital to resolving Myanmar's decade-long ethnic conflicts, Xu Liping, an expert on Southeast Asia at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
The 21st Century Panglong Conference, a peace conference involving the Myanmar government, the military and ethnic armed groups, was held in August.
But representatives of the United Wa State Army, one of the most powerful ethnic armed groups, walked out of the conference over what they called inequality in discussions.
"Since China has constantly disagreed with the brutal suppression of ethnic armed groups by Myanmar's military, whose bomb attacks killed five people in Yunnan Province [in March 2015], the commander-in-chief's visit will reassure China about the military's bottom line when tackling ethnic unrest," Xu said.
Besides, the Myanmar military has attempted to take every opportunity to win China's political endorsement, after both China and the United States acknowledged Myanmar's newly-elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, Xu pointed out.
