Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi has pledged to pay "special attention" to ties with China when her party takes office after its election triumph and said foreign investments would need public support to help improve relations.
In an interview with China's state-run Xinhua news agency, the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader said Burma had no enemies, but relations with neighbours were more sensitive than others and needed to be carefully handled.
China was Burma's lifeline for two decades when sanctions prevented most Western businesses and financial institutions from engaging with the country during military rule from 1962 to 2011 that left the nation underdeveloped.
But the stakes are now far higher for Beijing, with business competition heating up and the NLD's anticipated sweeping-out of the last remnants of the old military guard with which Chinese firms enjoyed a close bond.
"Ties between neighbours are always more delicate than that between countries far apart," Ms Suu Kyi said.
"We'll pay special attention to our relations in order to make them smooth, effective and clear."
Mistrust still lingers in Burma over China's involvement in its nationwide peace process. Ties have been strained over Burma's domestic border conflicts, some of which have spilled into China and killed civilians.
Burma's President Thein Sein lifted martial law in the restive Kokang region near China on Tuesday, saying peace had been fully restored following clashes that started in February between the government and rebel militia group, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.
China sent its envoy to the parliament in Naypyitaw on Wednesday for separate meetings with Ms Suu Kyi and house speaker Shwe Mann. It was unclear what was discussed.
China could face a challenge in maintaining its influence in Burma as the USs pays closer attention and Japanese and Asian firms compete for contracts.
Many European and US companies are expected to set up shop after the clear mandate for change in the November 8 election, the first free poll in a quarter century.
Complicating the business picture for China is that its Burmese investments have historically been unpopular, fuelling perceptions of graft, land grabs, shady deals with generals and the plunder of natural resources.
Without mentioning China specifically, Ms Suu Kyi said it was vital investors targeting Burma won public confidence, and for the government to be transparent.
She said foreign policy was about balance, and China and Burma could have a good friendship.
"We maintain friendly ties with friends from far and near," she said. "There's no reason establishing a friendship is impossible, if both parties are willing."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here