With tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators bravely protesting on the streets of Burma, the world's attention has finally turned to that Southeast Asian country and the brutal military dictatorship that controls it. Burma's military junta, which changed the country's name to Myanmar, crushed a nascent democracy movement in 1988, and then refused to cede power to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party after their overwhelming electoral victory in 1990.
Before the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, President Bush called for tough new sanctions against the Burmese regime and asked member nations to help bring an end to its "19-year reign of fear." But don't expect China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, to add its voice to the call for change. While world focus has rightly been on Chinese economic and military support for the Sudanese government's war against the people of Darfur, its involvement with other despotic regimes goes largely unnoticed. The Burmese people, however, understand clearly China's role in their continued oppression.
China's relationship with Burma is the closest of any it has in Southeast Asia. It views that nation as a strategic ally, coveting the potential use of its ports on the Indian Ocean and easier access to oil from Africa and the Middle East. China has provided economic support key to keeping the dismal economy afloat, and has built roads, bridges, airport facilities, power stations, factories and telecommunications networks. It has also modernized Burma's army, including an infusion of weaponry valued at over $1.4 billion when the junta took power.
In June it was announced that China would begin buying natural gas from Burma, and that the two countries were negotiating agreements on mining in Burma by Chinese companies. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese live in Burma and there have been protests against their increasing economic influence and presence.
Against this backdrop, and for nearly two decades, Ms. Suu Kyi and other activists have repeatedly called for international support to bring the military to the negotiating table and begin the transfer of power that should have taken place after the NLD's 1990 electoral victory. Tragically, Ms. Suu Kyi-- known to millions simply as "The Lady"--has spent 12 of the past 18 years as a political prisoner. Her most recent house arrest began in May 2003 after her convoy was attacked while she was traveling around Burma speaking at large public rallies.
Just a few months before her arrest I managed to enter Burma and meet with Ms. Suu Kyi in her Rangoon home, to discuss what the international community should do to help her people. She was quite clear that her party's call for the strengthening of economic sanctions against the military junta remained unchanged; that all investment in Burma should cease; and that tourists should not spend their money or provide some sense of legitimacy to the regime by visiting her country until democracy is established.
Unfortunately, the international community in general--and China in particular--has largely ignored her call for support.
The most recent protests against the regime began in mid-August, after the government doubled fuel prices. They quickly grew into mass, nonviolent protests for freedom and democracy. By the end of August, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns had begun to join the protests, even as the junta cracked down and arrested untold numbers of protesters and activists.
Less known is that, on Sept. 18, as the protests grew in numbers, Burmese activists (many now in hiding because of the crackdown) managed to deliver a letter to the government of China. Along with protesters outside Chinese embassies and consulates in 15 cities in 10 countries around the world, they asked that Beijing publicly end its support for the junta and instead help achieve reconciliation and democratization in Burma.
If China won't change its policies toward Burma on its own, it must be pressured to do so. Just as there has been public outrage over Beijing's support for the Sudanese government and its ongoing war in Darfur, there should be similar outrage at its involvement with Burmese military junta.
China must use its "special relationship" with the junta to arrange the release of Ms. Suu Kyi and hundreds--if not thousands--of other political prisoners. Once this is achieved, world leaders should join President Bush in calling for an end to military rule and the peaceful transfer of power that should have taken place in 1990.
We are all painfully aware of the carnage in Darfur--the thousands of villages completely destroyed, the hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced by the war, the systematic and widespread use of rape as a weapon of war in Khartoum's relentless war of ethnic cleansing there. That awareness has lead to highly effective campaigns to divest from the Chinese oil giant, PetroChina, that does business with Khartoum. There have also been repeated calls to not support the "Genocide Olympics" to be held in Beijing next August.
This intense public pressure on China has begun to show results. Beijing has of late become actively involved in trying to resolve the crisis in Darfur, appointing a special envoy to the Sudan, and has pledged to send a military contingent to take part in peacekeeping operations. Indeed, earlier this month the U.S. envoy to the Darfur region reported significant progress toward peace talks there and credited China with playing a key role.
It is time to pressure China's leaders to use their considerable influence in Burma as well. The military junta has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing, razing thousands of villages, killing tens of thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands more. As in Darfur, Burmese women are being systematically raped; hundreds of thousands of women, children and men are subjected to forced labor; and the country reportedly has more child soldiers--some as young as seven--than any other country in the world.
With thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns continuing to lead tens of thousands more in nonviolent marches across the country, we must do everything we can to support their call for democracy and acknowledge their courage in the face of certain repression. We must raise awareness of Chinese involvement with the Burmese military as much as has been done with its support for Khartoum.
As China's economy continues to grow, so too does its need for resources around the world. All of us should make it clear that Beijing's policy of "noninterference" with repressive economic clients cannot be tolerated. We should care about divesting from Chinese companies not only for the people of Darfur, but also for the Burmese, the Tibetans, the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo--to say nothing about the countless millions of Chinese denied their human rights as well.
To paraphrase "The Lady" Aung San Suu Kyi, we must use our liberty to promote theirs.
Ms. Williams, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her work as the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, is chair of the Nobel Women's Initiative (www.nobelwomensinitiative.org).
