In the New York Times, Roger Cohen argues that China’s inaction in Burma is only hurting prospects for the country’s rise:
Hu’s harmony is mostly hogwash. But who cares? The global thirst for China’s business, and for alternative power centers to Washington, has given the slogan a free ride.
China is not in the business of exporting war, development models or moral and political blueprints. It wants stability for its upward glide. Democracy comes in a distant second to growth, if at all. The tarnishing of the “D-word” in Iraq has suited China fine.
What suits China less is saffron-robed Buddhist monks in neighboring Myanmar ” the former Burma “ confronting the guns of a military junta that began its rule in 1988 with the massacre of 3,000 protesters and has not wavered in its corrupt brutality since.
…It’s time to call “harmony” to task. Monk-murder in a client state is no advertisement for China rising. India and China need political ideas to frame the economic rise of Asia: the sanctity of monk power is not a bad place to start. [Full text]
