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.”

Reluctantly, we agree. We have long believed in the doctrine of “constructive engagement” with totalitarian regimes. The more trade, the more exchanges, the more communication the better. That’s why we strongly approved of Columbia University’s invitation to the Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The best course was to let him speak, let him hear, let him learn.

But China refuses to play by the rules of civilized nations. Instead of opening up its political system, it’s cracking down on dissent. Instead of trading fairly, it’s manipulating its currency. Worst of all, China’s insatiable thirst for energy has corrupted all of its international relations.

Take Iran. Beijing’s trade with Tehran will soon reach $20 billion a year, and China is becoming the biggest consumer of Iranian oil. To safeguard those supplies, Beijing (along with Russia) has blocked every attempt by the United Nations to punish Tehran for defying world opinion and developing its nuclear capacity.

Then there’s Darfur, the Sudanese region ravaged by civil conflict. China consumes 60 percent of Sudan’s oil exports, and until recently, has frustrated international attempts at restoring order and aiding refugees.

But that changed when international celebrities like actress Mia Farrow started referring to the “genocide Olympics” and threatening a boycott. Recently, China endorsed a new international force of 26,000 peacekeepers for Darfur and is contributing 300 engineers to build roads and dig wells.

Chinese officials insist there is no connection between their change of heart and the Olympic issue, but that’s absurd. “The Olympics are serving a very useful purpose,” Princeton Lyman, an African expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told USA Today. “The Chinese feel the pressure of international opinion. The term ‘genocide Olympics’ really rattled them.”