As Myanmar’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists continues, China is increasingly voicing fears that its 2008 Olympics in Beijing could suffer in the fallout.

In recent days, a number of human rights groups have been calling for the U.S. and other countries to boycott the Beijing games as a means to punish China for its support of the military junta in Myanmar. Beijing is the largest supplier of weapons to the Burmese military and has repeatedly blocked attempts at the United Nations to censure or sanction Myanmar’s government for its suppression of democracy activists.

A number of media outlets have also written in recent days of the growing calls internationally for a boycott of the Beijing games over the Myanmar issue.

“One of the basic principles [of the Olympic Games] is non-politicization,” China’s spokesman at its Washington embassy, Wang Baodong, said at a hastily arranged press conference today. “Irrelevant issues should not be linked to the Beijing Olympics.”

Wang also told a small number of reporters that linking the Myanmar crackdown to the Beijing Olympics is “totally irresponsible” and that the international media should “abide by its professional rules.”

To date, the Bush administration has said it isn’t considering a boycott of the Olympics as a means to pressure Beijing over Myanmar. A senior White House official said last week: “We are really very reluctant to threaten boycotts of the Olympics. The president believes this is the summer Olympics in Beijing, not the Beijing Olympics.”

Still, a growing number of human rights activists and Burmese dissident groups say they will intensify their calls for a boycott in the coming months, particularly if the bloodshed in Myanmar continues. They think the lobbying could still change minds in Washington and other Western capitals.

“I don’t think the U.S. position is set yet” on the boycott, said Jeremy Woodrum of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. The “peaceful national uprising” in Myanmar this month “could change that,” he said.