ONE OF the Burmese junta’s top generals, Than Shwe, arrived in China yesterday to underline the good relations between the two Asian neighbours. The visit has turned a spotlight on China’s controversial policy of non-interference in the domestic policies of states considered pariahs by most of the world.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised China for propping up dictatorial and corrupt nations, mostly in Africa, but also in Asia.
China argues it is merely offering no-strings aid where other countries will not go, and says its policy of non-interference in any country’s internal affairs is welcomed by many nations.
Meeting with Than Shwe in Beijing, a senior People’s Liberation Army officer said China attached great importance to military relations with Burma.
President Hu Jintao assured the general of China’s support for his diplomatically isolated country ahead of controversial elections in November, the first in two decades. Later in the day, a Chinese government spokesman repeated Beijing’s stance urging foreign governments not to interfere in the poll.
While the junta has called the elections a key step in shifting to civilian rule after decades of military domination, few believe the elections will be fair, as the generals are unlikely to give up control of the country.
Burma is one of a number of international outcast states that China claims as its friends.
The list includes North Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Congo.
China is Burma’s third-largest trading partner and investor, after Thailand and Singapore.
President Hu said the general’s visit would “further promote bilateral relations and mutual co-operation between neighbours”.
While defending China’s relations with some of the globe’s undesirable nations, President Hu was also busy trying to smooth over recently rocky relations with the United States before he visits Washington, most likely in January. Mr Hu told a delegation of top aides to President Barack Obama that he wants to see healthy and stable ties between the two countries.
He is clearly eager to downplay months of strained relations between the two countries over trade imbalances, Chinese currency policies and US arms sales and military manoeuvres.
“China looks positively on the fresh progress made in China-US relations, and we are willing to work together with the United States in promoting the advance of healthy and stable China-US relations,” Mr Hu told the director of the US National Economic Council, Lawrence Summers, and deputy national security adviser Thomas Donilon.
The comments are being read as significant because the Chinese leader took the unusual step of meeting visitors ranked lower in the diplomatic pecking order.
However, the Chinese again rejected US calls to reform exchange rate policies that Washington believes keep the Chinese currency low in value.
China’s diplomatic skills are under a lot of pressure.
To the countries east, diplomatic tensions with Japan escalated when Beijing called in Tokyo’s ambassador after a Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands and Tokyo arrested the boat’s captain.
Deputy foreign minister Song Tao summoned Japanese ambassador Uichiro Niwa and urged Japan to stop the “illegal interception” of Chinese fishing boats, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The collisions happened in Japanese territorial waters off the northwestern coast of Japan’s Kuba Island, just north of uninhabited, disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.
The islands, about 190km east of Taiwan, are controlled by Japan but are also claimed by China and Taiwan.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshito Sengoku said he did not believe the arrest of the Chinese captain would affect Tokyo’s ties with Beijing.
In Beijing, there was a small, organised protest by about 30 people in front of the Japanese embassy.