The generals who have run Burma since 1962 are said to be nervous about becoming too dependent on Beijing. Chinese companies are involved in some 20 energy projects including the construction of a 500-mile pipeline to pump oil and gas to landlocked Yunnan province. In border towns and cities such as Mandalay, Chinese money and influence are everywhere. For years, both the US and the European Union – which have imposed varying degrees of sanctions – have been losing sway over Rangoon.

It is still too early for the west to relax sanctions. That would look too much like a response to sham elections held last November. The poll nominally established a civilian parliament and a series of regional parliaments. But most of those returned in the heavily manipulated poll were close to the long-dominant junta. One quarter of seats were reserved for the military. The party of Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel peace prize, did not even run.

Yet there is a case for eventually re-examining the west’s sanctions policy. To put it bluntly, these have not worked. If anything, isolating the country has played into the generals’ hands. Their grip on power, superficially at least, seems stronger than ever. Thanks to business dealings with China, India and Thailand, they are economically more secure. Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, now banned, has re-examined the sanctions issue, although its conclusion was that these were not hurting ordinary Burmese. Yet even the NLD, some of whose members secretly worry the sanctions policy may have driven them into a political cul-de-sac, has given some ground. Ms Suu Kyi, for example, is more relaxed about tourists visiting Burma so long as they avoid state-run tours.