YANGON – Myanmar foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi met her Chinese counterpart in Naypyidaw Tuesday, an official said, as relations with Beijing take centre stage in the first diplomatic foray of her newly installed pro-democracy government.

The Southeast Asian nation sees its giant neighbour – and largest trading partner – as its biggest foreign policy preoccupation with border wars and controversial Beijing-backed mega-projects topping the agenda.

Myanmar’s new civilian administration, sworn-in on March 30, faces a cascade of economic challenges as it inherits the poor nation from the military.

Suu Kyi, the country’s democracy figurehead who holds the post of foreign minister, invited China’s Wang Yi for talks in the capital.

An information ministry official confirmed to AFP that the meeting had begun Tuesday afternoon, without giving further details. Chinese state media also confirmed Wang’s two-day visit.

Beijing was instrumental in shielding Myanmar’s former junta from the full effects of international opprobrium during an era when Suu Kyi languished for years under house arrest.

Chinese firms enjoyed a host of juicy business deals with Myanmar’s former generals and their cronies that were often deeply controversial and seen as exploiting the impoverished nation’s rich natural resources.

Analysts say both nations seek to rebalance the relationship following Myanmar’s historic November elections that saw millions of voters take to the polls to end the military’s half century domination.

“China should be a foreign policy priority for Myanmar, and vice versa. The new government recognises China’s importance, but will also be keen to recalibrate aspects of the two countries’ relations,” said Nyantha Maw Lin, of advisory firm Vriens and Partners.

With a cumulative total of US$15.4 billion (S$20.9 billion) of approved investments in Myanmar, China is by far the country’s largest foreign investor, despite reforms in recent years that have seen Western firms surge back into the long-cloistered nation.

Its interests range from a huge oil and gas pipeline and special economic zone, to dams and mining.

The two countries share a long porous border, which is dotted with ethnic minority rebel groups fighting Myanmar’s government. It also sees huge flows of illicit timber, drugs and jade flood north from Myanmar.

Suu Kyi, who met President Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing last June, has shown a pragmatic streak in dealing with controversial Chinese interests.

But in a rare sign of pushback, a top party economic adviser in March said the incoming government could rethink a Chinese-backed dam in conflict hit northern Kachin State.

The multi-billion dollar Myitsone hydropower project was suspended in 2011 by the reformist government of Thein Sein.

Beijing is eager to restart the scheme.

The meeting between Suu Kyi and her Chinese counterpart comes amid growing tension between her party and the military, just days after her government took power.

Suu Kyi is barred from presidency by the junta-era constitution. But her party is looking to push a bill through parliament that would give her the vaguely defined new role of state special advisor.

Army MPs, who make up a quarter of the legislature, slammed the bill in a dramatic lower house hearing Tuesday that saw the uniformed soldiers refuse to vote and stand in protest when their attempts at amendments were swatted away by the NLD, which holds a majority.

“It is difficult for the military representatives to continue participating, if (the bill) is voted through without review,” military MP Brigadier General Maung Maung told the chamber.

The bill needs only one more vote in the combined parliament to pass.

BEIJING – Former top Chinese military leader Guo Boxiong has confessed to bribe-taking, the official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday, citing military prosecutors who described the sums as “extremely huge”.

Guo was for a decade one of the two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, second only to the Chinese president in the top body of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). He retired in 2012 and was expelled from the ruling Communist Party last year.

His fall came as President Xi Jinping seeks to consolidate his power and enhance his control over the PLA, the world’s largest military and technically the armed force of the ruling party rather than the Chinese state.

Guo was found to have taken advantage of his position “to assist the promotion and relocation of other people, accepting an extremely huge amount of bribe personally and through his family”, Xinhua cited military prosecutors as saying in a statement.

The 73-year-old had been formally charged and the procedure to prosecute him had begun, it added.

In China criminal charges normally follow expulsion from the ruling party. Trial, conviction and a jail term is effectively guaranteed to follow in a court system controlled by the Communist Party.

Since coming to power Xi has sought to impose his authority on the military, one of the targets of his wide-ranging anti-corruption drive.

As well as being the world’s largest active military, a vast network of businesses are linked to the armed forces – so extensive that academics have dubbed it “PLA Inc”. Officials have said it will be fully barred from providing “paid services” in three years’ time.

Graft is endemic in China and critics say that without systemic reforms Xi’s campaign is open to being used for political infighting.

The hugely powerful former security chief Zhou Yongkang, who was sentenced to life in prison last year, is its most high-profile scalp, while another former Central Military Commission vice chairman, Xu Caihou, died of cancer while under investigation.

Along with Bo Xilai, whose fall predates Xi’s ascension to the highest office, Guo is the fourth former member of the ruling party’s 25-strong Politburo to fall.

Guo “confessed to his suspected crime of bribery”, Xinhua quoted an official of the military procuratorate as saying.

Prosecutors had taken a “highly responsible attitude to the law and to history”, the official said, and seized money and properties involved “in accordance with the law”. Others involved who had committed crimes would be punished “without tolerance”.

Guo read and signed each interrogation transcript, the official said, adding his legal rights had been “earnestly guaranteed”.

Military prosecutors could not be reached for comment.

Chinese media poured scorn on Guo after he was expelled from the ruling party last year.

“One demon killed, all demons deterred,” declared a commentary in the People’s Daily, the party’s official mouthpiece.

“We must raise high and wield the sharp anti-corruption sword, so that the idea of going corrupt will be nipped in the bud and the corrupt will pay a price.” Guo’s family built up an enormous fortune after he ascended to the highest echelons of power, news portal Netease.com reported at the time of his expulsion.

His wife He Xiulian acted as a broker between him and senior military officers, taking bribes for promotions and refunding the money if the post did not materialise, it said.