Yes, countries should tell China that they will boycott Beijing Olympics if China does not pressure Burma to open up! That's the easy choice, but it's also the naïve one. In the first place, China is a dictatorship and faces many of Burma’s same problems: human rights, civil liberties, freedom of the press and internet. Realistically, what kind of help can we expect from China?
Let’s think about the Chinese methods of pressure. Will China use diplomatic or economic methods to pressure Burma? Or will it use force and violence, the conventional methods of an authoritarian regime? If China decides to invade Burma as a form of “pressure”, are we supposed to applaud it? Do we also expect or even trust China to eventually offer protection to refugees? Could China, with its current political structure, support the ideal of freedom in another country? I don’t think so. Most likely, the Communist Party’s strategists will fear that the process could spread dangerous ideas of liberty among their own population.
It’s clear that the international community must do something for Burma’s monks and freedom fighters. During Brazil’s military dictatorship of the 1970s, international pressure from many fronts helped undermine the strength of the military government. But that pressure came from democratic governments and organizations committed to freedom, such as Amnesty International.
That won’t happen in China for one single reason: China is an authoritarian regime, and as such it doesn’t share in other governments’ and organizations’ belief in democratic principles. Pressure to liberate non-democratic countries to liberalize is completely contradictory to the nature of a dictatorship. So we cannot transfer this responsibility onto China.
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