It’s time to get tough with China. On issue after issue – human rights, trade, Darfur, Iran – the leaders in Beijing have been playing a destructive role. And now, in Burma, they are blocking the United Nations from imposing sanctions on a military regime that is brutally repressing pro-democracy protests.

China’s enormous economic and military power makes it largely immune from international opinion. But not entirely. There is one thing it wants desperately: a trouble-free Olympic Games next year. That’s where China is vulnerable, so that’s the pressure point the international community has to use. A threat to boycott the games could be the only way to get the attention of Beijing’s commissars.

Unfortunately, President Bush has already agreed to attend the games, but in Europe, open talk of an Olympic boycott is growing louder. As Edward McMillan-Scott, the vice president of the European Parliament, told Reuters: “China is the puppet master of Burma (and) the Olympics is the only real lever we have to make China act. The civilized world must seriously consider shunning China by using the Beijing Olympics to send the clear message that such abuses of human rights are not acceptable.”