Democratic Burmese Youths

U.S. diplomat says China's role in Southeast Asia often unproductive Thurs July 26, 4:33 PM WASHINGTON (AP) _ A senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday that China's growing influence in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos has often been unhelpful and has contributed to flourishing corruption. China has worked to increase its economic and political presence throughout Southeast Asia, analysts say, and has pumped in large amounts of money meant to help build roads and other infrastructure to encourage Chinese trade and businesses in the region. But Eric John, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said that China does not do enough to link its aid with pressure for the countries to improve human rights, corruption and other issues of worry. ``We certainly wouldn't want China not to be involved, but, in many ways, its influence can be unproductive, '' John said at the Heritage Foundation think tank. ``It's a country that has allowed, for example, corruption to flourish with its assistance.' ' In communist-led Laos, a country of about 6.5 million people with long borders with Thailand and Vietnam and shorter ones with Myanmar, China and Cambodia, John spoke of vast Chinese economic influence. ``That leads to political influence and it makes it a tough country to crack for other countries to be able to positively influence them,'' he said. Separately, John said that Myanmar continued to suffer under the military, which has ruled since the early 1960s. ``It's continuing to get worse,'' he said. In a recent and rare meeting in Beijing, John pressed senior representatives of Myanmar's government to free imprisoned Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 11 of the past 18 years in detention. In Cambodia, John said there had been ``a lot of quiet improvements' ' and a steady boost in U.S.-Cambodian ties, in religious tolerance and in military cooperation with Washington. But Cambodia still has huge corruption problems and is still ``a country that, to put it mildly, heavily leans toward the executive branch in how it gover