BANGKOK -- With the imminent release of prodemocracy leader Aung San Su Kyi from house arrest, it is not too soon to reconsider the usefulness of U.S. sanctions against Myanmar.

The traditional argument -- that economic sanctions are necessary to punish the government and force the issue of democratic change -- makes less and less sense as Myanmar is changing quite rapidly. It is experimenting with political and economic reform, benefiting from the knowhow of tens of thousands of returned overseas workers and, perhaps most important in strategic terms, is rapidly becoming an economic colony of China, its giant neighbor to the north.

In early April, I was trapped and detained in front of Su Kyi's house by a phalanx of government security forces. The driver of the car I was in had taken an impulsive joy ride down empty asphalt roads of Yangon at midnight, then made a daring right turn onto a dark street where Myanmar's most famous, least accessible political celebrity lives. Between roadblocks, the car hit a dark metal strip in the road and swerved abruptly. Police-installed road spikes had instantly immobilized our vehicle with four flat tires.