The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in the general election last November, securing a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, House of Nationalities and the State Parliament.

The newly-elected parliament convened Monday, ushering a new era of democratic reforms under the NLD's governance. The future orientation of the China-Myanmar relationship is worth exploring. The power shift will not hurt, but improve, bilateral relations between Beijing and Nay Pyi Taw.

To begin with, the new parliament and government consist of politicians from both the ruling party and the opposition. Characterized by reconciliation and cooperation, the new political institutions are to the benefit of political stability.

Despite the NLD's majority seats in the parliament, some of the key political positions are appointed to people from other parties or ethnics while the NLD's U Win Myint was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the NLD has appointed U Mahn Win Khaing Than, an ethnic Karen, as Speaker of the House of Nationalities. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives is the USDP's U Ti Khun Myat and in the House of Nationalities the ANP's U Aye Thar Aung.

Thus, the federal government is estimated to become a united authority consisting of politicians from multi-parties and multi-ethnics.

The friendship between Myanmar's mainstream parties and China has lasted for a long time. Myanmar's second largest party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), will formally transfer power to the new government at the end of this March. The former USDP's government established a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation with China. President U Thein Sein will still lead the party after the power shift. He and other top officials from the USDP are playing a significant role in strengthening China-Myanmar cooperation.

Other political parties including the Arakan National Party (ANP) have built friendly ties with Beijing as well in recent years. Being friendly to China has already become a mainstream political view in Myanmar.

China supports Myanmar's democratic reforms. In the past five years, the Chinese government has not only carried out intense exchanges with the USDP, but also invited other political parties to Beijing including the NLD, the ANP and the National Unity Party. After November's general election, China congratulated the NLD and expressed good wishes to Myanmar.

The Chinese side will continue to consolidate the friendship and deepen cooperation with Myanmar. Beijing supports Nay Pyi Taw in realizing domestic development and improving livelihoods. An increasing number of Myanmese have realized that China supports the nation's democratic reforms and development.

The economic and people-to-people exchanges between Beijing and Nay Pyi Taw have become intense as well. Striving for domestic prosperity, the two nations are becoming increasingly interdependent. The two governments ought to follow the spirit of mutual benefit. Myanmar's development requires cooperation with China.

It needs foreign investments to develop infrastructure, build effective transportation system and create more job opportunities.

China, with its abundant capitals and experience in infrastructure, is the largest foreign investor and the largest trading partner to Myanmar.

Despite their intimate ties, Beijing and Nay Pyi Taw face a number of challenges as well. To address potential problems, the two sides should find more fields to cooperate, so that more balanced benefits can be brought to people's livelihood and the nations' development. For instance, the cross-border roads and railways should be built into economic corridors, generating concrete benefits. The two sides ought to attach more importance to cooperation in agriculture, manufacture and tourism.

More efforts need to be devoted to accelerating people-to-people exchanges as well. The friendship between the people of the two nations is a key pillar for a long-lasting bilateral relationship. Despite the intense top-level communications, there were few people-to-people exchanges in the past, which caused misunderstandings between the public and jeopardized the development of bilateral ties. Therefore, people-to-people exchanges must be enhanced to safeguard the stable development of bilateral relations.

In addition, frequent armed conflicts in Myanmar will result in a lose-lose situation, posing a threat to the development of both Myanmar and China. As a neighboring country, China does not want to see escalated conflicts. The two sides also need to work jointly to crack down upon cross-border crimes.

Myanmar has no desire to become a battlefield of major power rivalry. Major partners including the US, the EU, Japan, India, ASEAN and China should carry out more multilateral cooperation in Myanmar. Positive exchanges should be introduced for common development and win-win outcomes.

The author is an associate professor from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn