China urged the international community to respect the extended house arrest imposed on the Burmese democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, which has provoked fury from western governments, promises of new sanctions and growing demands for an arms embargo on Burma’s junta.

“International society should fully respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu Jiang said the day after Ms Suu Kyi was sent back to house arrest for another 18 months for receiving an eccentric American visitor who swam, uninvited, to the lakeside home where she was detained.

“As a neighbour of Myanmar's, China hopes all sides in Myanmar can push ethnic reconciliation through talks, and gradually realise stability, democracy and development,” Ms Jiang added. “This not only accords with Myanmar's interests, it is also beneficial to regional stability.”

The statement makes it almost unthinkable that the matter of Ms Suu Kyi’s extended detention will provoke action from the UN Security Council, where China has a veto. No other country has more power and influence over Burma than China, and yesterday’s position will frustrate foreign governments and lobbying groups demanding democratic reform from the dictatorship.

Ms Suu Kyi spent the first day under her new sentence of house arrest yesterday without access to her lawyers, who were not permitted to see her to discuss the appeal which they are planning against the sentence. The Australian Government added its voice to proposals for a global arms embargo against Burma, also supported by Gordon Brown, but without the active support of China, or at least a number of Burma’s neighbours, such efforts are certain to founder.

Two-way trade between China and Burma amounted to $2.6 billion (£1.6bn) last year, with much of its oil, natural gas, and precious metals imported by China, and cheap manufactured goods flowing into Burma.

Beijing is reluctant to jeopardise this useful trade, but Burma also represents a strategic zone of influence with its proximity to China’s regional rival, India, and access to the waters of the Indian Ocean. As a one-party state which locks up those who challenge its rule, China is reluctant to reproach any state on human rights grounds.

“We maintain that all countries, big and small, strong and weak, rich and poor, are equal, and we respect the right of people of all countries to independently choose their own development path,” China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, said yesterday after receiving an honorary degree from the Geneva School of Diplomacy.

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