China faces a growing crisis amid the confrontation between Myanmar’s military junta and its people.

A close ally of the junta and major investor in Myanmar’s economy, the Chinese Communist Party had hoped that the street protests would have ended by now. Those protests were sparked by the junta’s Feb. 1 seizure of power from a provisional civilian government. Attempting to crush the protests with overwhelming force, the junta killed dozens of civilians over the weekend. China has also earned protesters’ ire, with a number of Chinese-owned garment factories being firebombed. Beijing is increasingly worried.