Don’t you wish China hosted the Olympics every year? The pressure on Beijing is intensifying — regarding its clampdown in Tibet, its support for rogue African regimes, and its kindness to the dictators of neighboring North Korea and Burma.

From street protesters in Western capitals to diplomats in the halls of Turtle Bay, those who have always wanted to do something but were afraid to act are now using China’s ambition to showcase its stature on the world stage to remind China’s communist leaders of their dark side.

“Will Russians have to wait until 2014 to see support for our own struggle for human rights?” the envious Russian opposition leader and chess great, Garry Kasparov, asked in an op-ed published Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, referring to the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Yes, they’re all on our case now, but no one is asking us to stop investing in America, a Chinese diplomat told me recently. In truth, China needs to park its newfound riches somewhere, and America remains the best place, but the diplomat’s point was that Beijing’s biggest gripe with America has little to do with street protests or increasing diplomatic pressure over human rights. Mostly, he told me, Beijing needs something done about the weakness of the dollar, which is wreaking havoc on China’s trade balance.

Nevertheless, is the mounting pressure over its world behavior affecting China’s policies? The government’s conditional offer on Friday to talk to representatives of the Dalai Lama could signal a new readiness to negotiate. But the government-led vilification of the Tibetan spiritual leader has led to public anger in China against all foreigners, and it is unclear whether Beijing could reverse it, even if it wanted to.

China’s leaders imposed a limit on visas to Hong Kong for foreigners on the eve of the Olympic torch relay there. They made sure that the torch would not touch Taiwanese soil. And after Chinese demonstrators mobbed the French-owned supermarket chain Carrefour last week, French diplomats traveled to Beijing to apologize for the uproar that surrounded the torch’s arrival in Paris.

In Africa, Chinese arms shipments to Zimbabwe that might have abetted President Mugabe’s efforts to steal the election were sent back when they arrived at ports in South Africa and Angola. In face-saving statements, Chinese officials rightly noted that China had broken no law by fulfilling its arms contracts. But now that even Zimbabwe’s allies South Africa and Angola are too embarrassed to aid Mr. Mugabe, will China stand in the way of imposing an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, as proposed last week by Prime Minister Brown of Britain? And, for that matter, would China also veto an arms embargo against Sudan, if it were proposed at the U.N. Security Council? Don’t bet against either.

The European Union last week called for an arms embargo against Burma, where the military junta is planning to prolong its hold on power in May by holding a sham referendum on its self-proposed national constitution. Before China forgoes a veto of a Security Council resolution on an arms embargo, let’s see if its diplomats sign on to a simple council statement meant to ensure that the referendum is “inclusive and credible.” America circulated a proposal for such a statement among council members last week.

And even as the diplomats sought to bring China into the fold on Burma policy, American legislators last week awarded Capitol Hill’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been jailed since winning an election more than a decade ago. Like the Olympic torch demonstrations, such symbolic acts may help to nudge China’s leaders a bit as they seek international respect during the games this summer.

As Mr. Kasparov noted, though, “It doesn’t take a whole lot of courage to criticize the rule of Fidel Castro or Kim Jong Il,” but “when it comes to nations like Russia and China, issues of basic human rights suddenly become ‘complicated.'” America’s dilemma remains how to balance its desire for decent Chinese behavior with other, very real, interests such as the trade balance or China’s increasing appetite for energy, to mention just two.

As presidents Clinton and Bush have learned, deciding what to do about such considerations looks much easier from the campaign trail than from the White House. As long as they are on the hustings, however, senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain could do worse than hop on the pre-Olympics bandwagon.

bavni@nysun.com