China's Burmese days: Can a responsible stakeholder arise?

China is thus facing an unwanted test of its claim to be a responsible stakeholder in the international community. With 3,000 villages destroyed and 1.5 million people already displaced in eastern Burma, a humanitarian disaster has been unfolding for some time now. Throughout these troubles, China has held its tongue, sticking to its policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of any nation.

But that policy may no longer be tenable, because it is in China's interest to find an effective alternative to further crackdowns, which would only remind the world vividly of the massacres in Rangoon in 1988 and in Tiananmen Square the following year. With some international celebrities already keen to start a campaign to boycott the Beijing Olympics because of China's support for some of the world's most repressive and incompetent regimes, more military crackdowns in Burma are the last thing the Chinese authorities can afford.

Moreover, China's rulers are focused on the looming 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which could likewise be spoiled by a bloody confrontation in Burma.