BEIJING — Burma’s historic general elections and signs of a landslide victory for backers of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi have raised some uncomfortable questions in giant northern neighbor China.

The first is how China’s Communist Party rulers will manage to get along with a civilian-led government in Burma after decades of backing military rule in Burma.

But a second question, perhaps less expected, has bubbled up from Chinese people themselves in the past few days. If the Burmese can have democracy, some ask, why can’t we?

Sun Liping, a sociology professor at Tsinghua University was among the first to question the official line that Western-style democracy was simply not appropriate for China at its current level of development.

“Actually, democracy is a normal way for a normal society to behave,” he posted on the Sina Weibo microblogging service, according to Washington-based Radio Free Asia.

Read the article “Burma’s Election Leaves Former Patron China Wondering Why China Doesn’t Yet Have Democracy” on washingtonpost.com.