By 1990, Myanmar could not afford to resist China's importunings. The West had condemned it for ignoring the results of an election that gave overwhelming victory to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but has spent seven of the last 11 years under house arrest.
Early this month, several fellow Nobel laureates, meeting in Oslo, Norway, issued a fresh call for the release of Suu Kyi, known in Myanmar as "the lady." More US companies are severing ties to Myanmar, while those that keep them are coming under sustained pressure from Myanmar activist groups.
"The isolation of Burma by the West has driven it into the arms of China," said Ma Thanegi, a former democracy activist and now a journalist.
"The government knows it, and they do not like it."
As memories of the 1988 crackdown fade, however, Myanmar is finding it easier to forge ties with other countries -- particularly for buying arms. Russia recently sold 10 MIG-29 fighter jets to Yangon, while diplomats say the Russian government is helping to build a nuclear power plant in central Myanmar.
Yet because of history and geography, China is likely to remain Myanmar's indispensable ally for the foreseeable future. Experts say the Chinese government is more determined than ever to strengthen ties because it views Myanmar as its economic gateway to Southeast Asia.
"If you develop the infrastructure, the distance from Yunnan through Burma to the sea is much smaller than putting goods on a train and transporting them all the width of China to Shanghai," said Robert Karniol, Jane's Defence Weekly's Asia-Pacific editor, who is based in Bangkok.
China has already built a road connecting a border town in Yunnan with a port on the Irrawaddy River, north of Yangon. It has given dredges to Myanmar to make the river navigable for deeper cargo ships.
The effect of China's investments on ordinary Burmese is harder to judge. Thanks largely to the Chinese, Mandalay has become a boomtown, with flashy shopping malls, traffic jams and a stubborn drug problem.
But those changes have done nothing to ease the fear and alienation that come with life under a military dictatorship. In Mandalay, as elsewhere, the universities have been padlocked to prevent unrest. Satellite campuses, with drab cinder-block buildings, have been erected outside town.
The Chinese are viewed by the many who loathe the government as complicit in its acts of repression. People here say Chinese developers have paid off local officials to give them access to prime real estate. They point to the baronial houses of these officials as evidence of the corruption.
Indeed, the rise of the Chinese in Myanmar -- and their cozy alliance with the junta leaders -- has deepened the sense of oppression for some Burmese. Democracy advocates are as critical of these corrupt outsiders as they are of their homegrown dictators.
"China is our next-door neighbor, and it is so huge," said the dissident, who is a lifelong resident of Mandalay. "Even if we built a great wall with bricks very high, a few of them would jump over. But it would be enough. Instead, we've opened the door and allowed them to pour in."
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