Paul

Bugger all I'd say mate. Burma has some oil but not enough to interest Western ideologues to invade it and occupy it for Western style "democracy and freedom". So Burma languishes as China's vassal.

There is a minute Western press corps not only because of junta restrictions but because the West sees insufficient economic gain in pressuring the junta.

Got any ideas?

Pete
(card carrying cynical capitalist)

Until China withdraws support for the regime in Burma (currently an unlikely scenario) little will be done. There is a need to put far more pressure on China but the world in general is afraid to do so. China is an economic mess. If it collapses then the world will collapse with it. So the rest of the world props up China and they in turn prop up Burma, North Korea, Zimbabwe and the like.
I have suggested elsewhere that boycotting the Olympics would help - but it would take a massive boycott and that is unlikely to happen because most athletes and their governments are too selfish to consider such a move.
A colleague in a camp on the Thai-Burma border informed me this morning that the death toll is now thought to run to thousands, many of them monks. Internet services have been cut, telephone services have been cut in many places (and elsewhere are being monitored). Movement around the country has been severely restricted - resulting in more than the usual food shortages and still further downgrading of services we see as essential.

Diplomats need to intensify their efforts at persuading China to use her strong economic and political power as a force for championing human rights and good governance accross the globe.

Could anyone doubt that China's reputation and public opinion would skyrocket if it took a bold change to their current rigid standard foreign policy position? 'No interferance in another nation's internal affairs' is unsustainable when you are a giant in world affairs.

If China is to gain respect in the global village, its leaders need to be prepared to hold their trading partners accountable to universally recognised high ethical and performance standards that will better the lives of citizens. This is the measure of true leadership.

Time to running out for Chinese leaders to recognise and respond to the aspirations that billions of global citizens have for China in its role as an emerging superpower.

This is the leadership litmus test that China cannot afford to fail if it is to gain the accolades it desires at the next Olympics and into the history books of this millenium.