"China’s President Xi Jinping arrives in Myanmar this week to nail down multi-billion-dollar infrastructure deals in a country abandoned by many in the West appalled at the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims on leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s watch. Xi’s two-day visit, his first as president, will seek to cement Beijing’s position as Myanmar’s largest investor and strategic partner. The much-trumpeted China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) aims to connect the Middle Kingdom to the Indian Ocean, a key route in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative that envisions Chinese infrastructure and influence spanning the globe. In addition to offering tens of billions of dollars in investment, China shields its neighbor at the United Nations, where pressure is mounting for accountability over the Rohingya crisis. Yet the relationship between the countries is tangled. Ethnic conflicts sizzling in border zones and the impact of dams, pipelines and transport links risk awakening hostility over Chinese intentions..."