NAYPYITAW • China and Myanmar inked dozens of mammoth infrastructure and trade deals after a meeting yesterday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and fallen human 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 because of the Rohingya crisis.

A 2017 military crackdown on the Muslim minority, which United Nations 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 yesterday on the final day of Mr Xi's visit - with Ms Suu Kyi and Mr Xi seated across from each other at 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 US$1.3 billion (S$1.75 billion) Kyaukhphyu deep-sea port and economic zone.

There was also a letter of intent for "new urban development" in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon. Feasibility studies for rail links were also agreed on.

The aim is to carve out a "China-Myanmar Economic Corridor" - a path of infrastructure from China's landlocked south to Myanmar's western Rakhine state which would serve as Beijing's long-awaited gateway to the Indian Ocean.

The signing ceremony came between sit-down meetings with Ms Suu Kyi and powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who stands accused of masterminding the Rohingya crackdown.

After arriving on Friday, Mr Xi called the visit a "historical moment" for relations between the two neighbours, according to state-run newspaper the Global New Light of Myanmar.

He also touched on the "unfairness and inequality in international relations" in what could be seen as a slight aimed at the United States, which has sanctioned the army chief.

An article in Chinese state media ahead of Mr Xi's visit said Myanmar had been "derailed" by its engagement with the West and only China was willing to "pull Myanmar from the sludge".

"But after some turbulence, Myanmar realised there were double standards in the approach Western countries had taken on human rights issues and began to turn to China for diplomatic and economic help," the article in the Global Times said.

Ms Suu Kyi - whose reputation lies in tatters in the eyes of the West owing to her defence of the army over the Rohingya crisis - said the country will always be at China's side.

"It goes without saying that a neighbouring country has no other choice, but to stand together till the end of the world," she said during a celebration late on Friday.

China remains an indispensable ally for its South-east Asian neighbour, wielding a protective veto vote at the UN Security Council.

The stakes are heightening as the UN's top court prepares to rule soon on whether "emergency measures" should be taken against Myanmar as part of a genocide complaint in The Hague.

But widespread suspicion of Beijing's influence in the country persists among those who are sceptical that the economic benefits would trickle down to the masses and of ties to rebel groups fighting the state in border areas.

"This is a big problem for our country... they believe that China has been taking advantage," said Mr Thu Wai, leader of the Democratic Party, one of the 17 political parties at Friday's celebration.

That anger was expected to be on display in a planned protest yesterday in Yangon, where demonstrators were to rally against any reinstatement of a controversial Chinese-backed mega-dam.

The US$3.6 billion 6,000MW Myitsone project was suspended in 2011 in the face of vociferous criticism across the country.

This is believed to have been a personal affront to Mr Xi, who signed the deal with Myanmar's then military junta as vice-president in 2009.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS