"Nearly 40 civil society organizations (CSOs) have called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to permanently terminate the suspended Myitsone Dam project, saying that the project threatens the prosperity of the Myanmar people and that friendly relations between the two countries will deteriorate if the project goes ahead. On Wednesday, civil society organizations, mostly based in Kachin State, issued an open letter to Xi, two days before his planned visit to Myanmar. The visit aims to pave the way for Xi’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in Myanmar and includes plans for a dozen agreements, including around the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which will grant China access to the Indian Ocean. A final decision on the controversial Myitsone Dam project may also be on the agenda for the visit. “We will have to lose more and more if the project is revived. Local residents have already suffered enough because of the project. We want to stop the project permanently,” Tu Hkawng, project coordinator for civil society organization Airavati, told The Irrawaddy. “We will never agree to restarting the Myitsone project.”..."