Redstate

Posted at 8:40am on May 17, 2008 China Backs Up the Burmese Leadership

Intransigence

By blackhedd

China backs up the Burma leadership’s refusals to allow foreign aid workers to enter the country. The Burmese generals want our food and our equipment, but not our people. Obviously, because they don’t want their own people to have any contact with the outside world. Might lead to calls for a leadership change, you see. Can’t have that.

China’s position is a standard one they have taken for decades: no nation (especially not those do-gooding Americans) has the right to “interfere in the internal affairs of another.” Obviously, because the Chinese leadership is awfully sensitive about when foreigners (read, us) try to infect their own people with crazy notions about freedom and democracy.

(Of course, China has never hesitated to interfere in the internal affairs of other states when it serves their interests. But let’s not be pointing fingers here.)

The noteworthy thing about this is that China is no longer hesitant to raise their voice and speak up about this, in international forums like the UN, and elsewhere. Obviously, they’re trying to increase the size of their footprint in global affairs.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is ground on which we need to be competing against the Chinese, and not only because their position is morally wrong. The rest of the world is constantly watching for signs of who the heavyweight champ of soft-power really is.

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