The bad guys of Southeast Asia, SLORC of Myanmar, the little North Korea in the making on the diametrically opposite side of China, have found themselves a champion. Their regime will quite likely be strongly coddled by a China that is taking an ever deeper interest in it for one major reason - oil. A revelation today that China is the world's second largest consumer of oil in the world after the United States was paired by a lower-key, but potentially as important announcement - that Myanmar (Burma) was declining co-operation with India on an India-Bangladesh-Myanmar gas pipeline and will be working just with China instead.

It has been some time since both Burma and India were both British colonies, but ties of history and of geographic proximity had kept the two countries on speaking terms. However, the greater political similarities between China and Burma (and between China and most of the countries on its western flank) mean that the latter, and other oil-rich states, will be falling increasingly into China's orbit. China offers not only ready cash, but also the prospect of being a counterweight against Indian, and ultimately also American influence.

It seems that most people have focused on Taiwan as the greatest potential flashpoint with the United States. But what is India's concern today may become America's concern tomorrow from a geopolitical standpoint.