‘China losing patience with Burma’: Wikileaks

LONDON - The Chinese government, Burma’s closest ally, is losing patience with the military regime over its failure to implement political and other reforms, according to classified US diplomatic cables released by whistleblower website Wikileaks.

In a 2008 cable marked “China Losing Patience With Burma”, the senior US diplomat in Burma at the time, Shari Villarosa, described a lunch with the Chinese Ambassador, Guan Mu, and said that the Chinese were worried about political turmoil that could affect their business interests.

“The Chinese ambassador no longer tried to defend the regime, and acknowledged that the generals had made a bad situation worse. The Chinese have used their access to the generals to push for change, without much observable result, but remain interested in working with us to promote change,” the Guardian quoted Villarosa, as saying in a cable.

“The Chinese can no longer rely on the generals to protect their interests here, and recognise the need to broker some solution that keeps the peace, including bringing in the pro-democracy supporters,” she added. (ANI)