Some now divine a softening on China’s part. Perhaps it sees the public-relations damage. Perhaps it remembers how, in 2010-11, Myanmar plopped out of China’s orbit and into the West’s. At any rate, some of the smiles are being turned back on. Under its “one belt, one road” initiative of building globe-girdling trade links, China is promising to invest in ports and railways across South-East Asia, assisted by another Chinese-led venture, the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. (Besides the diplomatic payoff, this is intended to provide an outlet for goods from half-idle Chinese factories.) China has always welcomed South-East Asian autocrats such as Mr Prayuth and Hun Sen of Cambodia. Now even democrats with Nobel peace prizes are going to Beijing. Last year President Xi Jinping received Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, who had long been shunned.