When Jiang Yu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, addressed the issue of mounting protests in Burma on Tuesday she trotted out the standard line that China “always adopts a policy of non-interference” in the affairs of other countries.
“The stability of [Burma] serves the interest of [Burma] itself and the interests of the international community,” she said.
But the emphasis on “stability” and the benefits to the global community of a peaceful and prosperous Burma – a country in which Beijing has significant economic interests – underlined China’s frustration at the inability of the governing junta to broaden its popular support in recent years.
Privately, in talks with the US, and publicly in recent weeks, although less explicitly, China has urged Burma to engage the now-detained Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, directly in recognition of her democratic mandate.
China hosted direct talks between the US and top Burmese officials in June in Beijing, in an effort to draw Rangoon back into the international community.
In September, Tang Jiaxuan, a former foreign minister who has been used as an envoy by Beijing, told Burmese leaders that “China wholeheartedly hopes that [Burma] will push forward a democracy process that is appropriate for the country”.
Xinhua, the official news agency, added that China, “as a friendly neighbour, sincerely hopes [Burma] will restore internal stability as soon as possible, properly handle issues and actively promote national reconciliation”.
China fears that any violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators by the junta will reflect badly on Beijing itself and its willingness to support dictatorial regimes.
China has invested heavily in Burmese gas fields, often in competition with India. It is also building a port at Kyauk Phyu, in Burma, which will be connected by a 1,950km highway with Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province.
China’s frustration at the incompetence of the regime was in evidence in an unusually frank posting on the foreign ministry website in May.
In the posting, since taken down, a Chinese diplomat described in mocking tones the transfer of the Burmese capital from Rangoon to a specially constructed city in the isolated centre of the country.
He recounted how foreign diplomats were kept in the dark “as is usual in Burma” until they were ordered to relocate to the new capital built on a “wasteland” and renamed to make it sound grander.
“It is hard for such a backward developing country to build a large city with proper facilities from scratch,” the article said.
The article noted that after years of effort, the new capital’s basic infrastructure was barely finished and that it lacked a proper airport but that the junta had managed to complete the construction of four golf courses.
