China: Leave Myanmar -- and Aung San Suu Kyi Trial -- Alone

News this week that Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be kept under house arrest until at least after next year's elections set off swift international criticism. While the United States called for her release and the EU threatened new sanctions against the regime, China adopted a different line, telling the international community to stay out of it.

In a statement to Reuters on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu cited Suu Kyi's case, saying, "As for the related domestic case, international society should fully respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty."

In the past, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has noted that sanctions against Myanmar don't seem to have accomplished much. And, without China on board, new sanctions are unlikely -- and even unlikelier to be effective if they were enacted. Complicating this turn of events is North Korea and growing unease over its cozy relationship with Myanmar.

On her Asian tour in July, Clinton warned about the potential of a nuclear North Korea helping Myanmar build its own program. She is not the only one concerned. Just this week, India's navy seized a North Korean ship and searched it for nuclear material, trying to determine if it had been heading to Myanmar. No radioactive material was found on the ship.

So far, China -- one of the few countries besides North Korea to remain friendly with Myanmar's government -- hasn't expressed similar concerns. But, China was part of the dissolved six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea, and Chinese officials have continued to say that they want to be part of discussions if they resume. If China, like the U.S and India, becomes concerned about what the relationship between Myanmar and North Korea could mean for nuclear proliferation, one side effect could be a policy shift on Myanmar's imprisonment of Suu Kyi.