“China, this is Burma calling, can you hear me?
50 000 dead and rising. Still there is no answer in Beijing.
As southern Asia’s powerhouse and self-appointed guardian of peace, harmony, and regional stability, where the hell is China when their neighbours need them?
State media have been updating on the climbing death toll as the scale of the cyclone disaster unfolds, but in the same manner that they might report a minor landslip on the other side of the planet. Newsflash: this is happening next door - so pull your fingers out!
If China was sending in bundles of aid, we’d have heard about it. And even if they can’t spare the manpower or rice, why not whisper in their friend the Junta’s ear about letting other foreign aid workers in to help alleviate some of the suffering? Or would that be interfering in another county’s internal affairs? You’re damn right it would, and in a most positive, humane, and responsible way.
The Chinese government have influential relationships with many of the world’s despots, including Burma’s (or Myanmar’s, if you will) brutal leaders. For China to earn universal plaudits they need only use their leverage to intervene on purely humanitarian grounds. The people of Burma are waiting for their big brother to step up.
China is on the doorstep, yet the pleas for entry and offers of assistance, at time of writing at least, are coming mainly from countries thousands of miles distant from the disaster zone. I understand Hu Jintao is a little tied up in Japan right now, but he watches the news, doesn’t he?