In 1977, Leon Sullivan, an African-American minister and board member of General Motors, took on a seemingly impossible task: devising guidelines for companies seeking to do business, but do no harm, in apartheid South Africa.

The principles were drafted at a time when many activists wanted a full economic boycott of a racist, brutal regime. They required corporate signatories to commit to equal pay for employees of all races, promote more non-whites into management jobs, and work to eliminate unjust laws (the seventh principle, adopted in 1984). More than 100 US groups signed on.

Foreign investors in Myanmar at present face a no less pressing question: how to do business responsibly in a country ruled by another repressive regime. Min Aung Hlaing’s junta overthrew a democratic government nearly a year ago and since then has killed an estimated 1500 people and imprisoned thousands, many of whom were tortured.