Obama, Clinton gamble on Myanmar MATTHEW LEE November 28, 2011 12:14 PM EST

Associated Press

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------WASHINGTON The Obama administration is taking a foreign policy gamble by sending S ecretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on a historic trip to the isolated Sout heast Asian nation of Myanmar this week. The administration is betting that the first visit to the country, also known as Burma, by a secretary of state in more than half a century will pay dividends, including loosening Chinese influence in a region where America and its allies a re wary of China's rise. But it will also gauge the Myanmar government's baby st eps toward democratic reform after 50 years of military rule that saw brutal cra ckdowns on pro-democracy activists, including the detention of opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Clinton leaves Washington on Monday and will spend two days in Myanmar after a s top in South Korea. After talks with government officials in Myanmar's capital o f Naypyitaw on Thursday, she will see Suu Kyi on Friday in a meeting that will l ikely be the highlight of the visit. Suu Kyi, who intends to run for parliament in upcoming by-elections, has welcomed Clinton's trip and told President Barack Obama in a phone call earlier this month that engagement with the government wou ld be positive. Clinton has called Suu Kyi a personal inspiration. The trip is the first major development in U.S.-Myanmar relations in decades and comes after the Obama administration launched a new effort to prod reforms in 2 009 with a package of carrot-and-stick incentives. The rapprochement sped up whe n Myanmar held elections last year that brought a new government to power that p ledged greater openness. The administration's special envoy to Myanmar has made three trips to the country in the past three months, and the top U.S. diplomat f or human rights has made one. Those officials pushed for Clinton to make the trip, deeming a test of the refor ms as worthwhile despite the risks of backsliding. President Thein Sein, a former army officer, has pushed forward reforms after My anmar experienced decades of repression under successive military regimes that c ancelled 1990 elections that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won. Last week, Myanmar's parliament approved a law guaranteeing the right to protest , which had not previously existed, and improvements have been made in areas suc h as media and Internet access and political participation. The NLD, which had b oycotted previous flawed elections, is now registered as a party. But the government that took office in March is still dominated by a military-pr oxy political party, and Myanmar's commitment to democratization and its willing ness to limit its close ties with China are uncertain. Corruption runs rampant, hundreds of political prisoners are still jailed and vi olent ethnic conflicts continue in the country's north and east. And, although t he government suspended a controversial Chinese dam project earlier this year, C hina laid down a marker ahead of Clinton's trip by sending its vice president to meet the head of Myanmar's armed forces. China's Foreign Ministry said in a sta tement that Vice President Xi Jinping pledged to maintain strong ties with Myanm ar and encouraged Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to push for solutions to unspecified chal lenges in relations. Myanmar also remains subject to tough sanctions that prohibit Americans and U.S. companies from most commercial transactions in the country.

U.S. officials say Clinton's trip is a fact-finding visit and will not result in an easing of sanctions. But officials also say that such steps could be taken i f Myanmar proves itself to be serious about reform.