Economic ties between China and Myanmar have been expanding rapidly in recent years. China has been Myanmar's biggest trade partner since 2011, with bilateral trade accounting for one-third of Myanmar's total foreign trade volume. China is also Myanmar's biggest foreign investor.

According to Myanmar's official data, from 1988 to the end of 2015, China invested in a total of 115 projects worth over 15 billion US dollars. That's over a quarter of Myanmar's total FDI. Still, economic relations hit a bump in 2011 after Myanmar suspended a long-planned 3.6 billion-dollar hydroelectric dam project.

At the time, Aung San Suu Kyi herself was an activist against the China-invested Myitsone dam.