Background

Pakistan has a long and symbiotic relationship with China. The long-standing ties between the two countries have been mutually supportive. A close identity of views and mutual interests remain the hallmark of bilateral ties. Since the 1962 Sino-Indian War, Pakistan has supported China on most issues of importance to the latter, especially those related to the question of China's sovereignty like Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet and other sensitive issues such as human rights.[9]

The JF-17 Thunder is a joint Pakistan-China project. The Chinese leadership has acknowledged Pakistan's steadfast support on key issues. Pakistan helped China in reestablishing formal ties with the West, where they helped make possible the 1972 Nixon visit to China. Pakistan has collaborated with China in extensive military and economic projects, seeing China as a counterweight to India and the United States. Pakistan has also served as a conduit for China's influence in the Muslim world.[10] China also has a consistent record of supporting Pakistan in regional issues. During the PakistanIndian tensions in 2008, it implied that it would support Pakistan in the event of a war. Pakistan's military depends heavily on Chinese armaments, and joint projects of both economic and militaristic importance are ongoing. China has supplied equipment to support Pakistan's nuclear program, and has provided nuclear technology to Pakistan.[11]

[edit] Diplomatic relations

Diplomatic relations between Pakistan and China were established on 21 May 1951, shortly after the defeat of the Republic Of China in 1949.[12] While initially ambivalent towards the idea of a Communist country on its borders, Pakistan hoped that China would serve as a counterweight to Indian influence. India had recognized China a year before, and Indian Prime Minister Nehru also hoped for closer relations with the Chinese. However, with escalating border tensions leading to the 1962 Sino-Indian war, China and Pakistan aligned with each other in a joint effort to counter perceived Indian encroachment. One year after China's border war with India, Pakistan ceded the Trans-Karakoram Tract to China to end border disputes and improve diplomatic relations.

Since then, an informal alliance that initially consisted of joint Indian opposition has grown into a lasting relationship that has benefited both nations on the diplomatic, economic and military frontiers. Along with diplomatic support, Pakistan served as a conduit for China to open up to the West. China has in turn provided extensive economic aid and political support towards Pakistan.

Disputed territory ceded to China in 1963. Pakistan's military initially depended almost entirely on American armaments and aid, which was increased during the covert U.S. support of Islamic militants in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. America under US President Richard Nixon supported Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.[13] However, the period following the Soviet withdrawal and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led indirectly to the increasing realignment of America with the previously pro-Soviet India. The Pressler Amendment in 1990 suspended all American military assistance and any new economic aid amidst concerns that Pakistan was attempting to develop a nuclear weapon.[14] Given the support that Pakistan had given them during the War in Afghanistan, many Pakistanis saw this as a betrayal that sold out Pakistani interests in favor of India. This belief was further strengthened as India had developed a nuclear weapon without significant American opposition, and Pakistan felt obligated to do the same. Consequently, the primarily geopolitical alliance between Pakistan and China has since 1990 branched out into military and economic cooperation, due to Pakistan's belief that America's influence and support in the region should be counterbalanced by the Chinese. With the war in Afghanistan leading to renewed relations with the U.S., there is a general sentiment in Pakistan to adopt a foreign policy which favors China over the United States.[15] Washington has been accused deserting Pakistan in favor of a policy that favors stronger relations with India, while Pakistan sees China as a more reliable ally over the long term.[16]

Since 9/11, Pakistan has increased the scope of Chinese influence and support by agreeing to a number of military projects, combined with extensive economic support and investment from the Chinese. This is partially due to Pakistan's strategy of playing off the two powers against each other, but also a genuine effort to prevent America's influence in the region from becoming too strong. In return, the Chinese hope to strengthen Pakistan as a counterbalance to American and Indian influence.

[edit] Military relations

The People's Republic of China enjoys strong defense ties with Pakistan.[17] This relationship between two adjoining Asian countries is important in the world's geo-strategic alliances. The strong defense ties are primarily to counter regional Indian and American influence, and was also to repel Soviet influence in the area. In recent years this relationship has strengthened through ongoing defence projects and agreements between Pakistan and China. China also fully supported Pakistan in its 1965 war against India. Chinese pressure on India enabled Pakistan to accept ceasefire in a better position than it would have been. The Chinese were of less help in the 1971 war as the Soviets had agreed to deal with China, if it helped Pakistan. However, soon after the war China wrote off some of the loans it had given to Pakistan. Since 1962, China has been a steady source of military equipment to the Pakistani Army, helping establish munition factories, providing technological assistance and modernizing existing facilities.[18] The countries are involved in the joint venture of several projects to enhance military and weaponry systems, which include collaborating in the development of JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, K-8 Karakorum advance training aircraft, space technology, AWACS systems, Al-Khalid tanks and the Babur cruise missile. The armies have a schedule for organising joint military exercises.[19]

Gwadar Port. China is the largest investor in the Gwadar Deep Sea Port, which is strategically located at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.[20] It is viewed warily by both America and India as a possible launchpad for Chinese naval operations in the Indian Ocean.[21] However the Gwadar Port is currently delayed due to a multilateral diplomatic standoff between the project leaders and the Singapore government.

China has offered Pakistan military aid in order to fight against terrorism in Pakistan. Pakistan has purchased military equipment from China in order to bolster their efforts against Islamic militants.[22] In the past, China has played a major role in the development of Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure, especially when increasingly stringent export controls in Western countries made it difficult for Pakistan to acquire materials and uranium enriching equipment from elsewhere. China has supplied Pakistan with equipment to advance their nuclear weapons program, such as the Chinese help in building the Khushab reactor, which plays a key role in Pakistan's production of plutonium. A subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation contributed in Pakistan's efforts to expand its uranium enrichment capabilities by providing 5,000 custom made ring magnets, which are a key component of the bearings that facilitate the high-speed rotation of centrifuges. China has also provided technical and material support in the completion of the Chashma Nuclear Power Complex and plutonium reprocessing facility, which was built in the mid 1990s.[23] China may also have supplied nuclear technology to the Pakistanis, enabling Pakistan to become a nuclear state with an estimated 100 warheads as of 2011.[11][24] China has become increasing concerned about al-Qaeda linked terrorism originating in Pakistan and is seeking to setup military bases on Pakistani soil to deal with the problem.[25]

[edit] Economic relations

See also: China Pakistan Free Trade Agreement Economic trade between Pakistan and China is increasing at a rapid pace and a free trade agreement has recently been signed. Military and technological transactions continue to dominate the economic relationship between the two nations, although in recent years China has pledged to vastly increase their investment in Pakistan's economy and infrastructure. Among other things, China has been helping to develop Pakistan's infrastructure through the building of power plants, roads and communication nodes. Current trade between both countries is at $9 billion, making China the second largest trade partner of Pakistan.[26] Both countries are keen on strengthening the economic ties between the two, and have promised to 'propel' cross-border trade. This has led to investment in Pakistan's nascent financial and energy sectors, amidst a surge of Chinese investment designed to strengthen ties. Pakistan has in turn been granted free trade zones in China.[27] The economic relationship between Pakistan and China is composed primarily of Chinese investment in Pakistani interests. China's increasing economic clout has enabled a wide variety of projects to be sponsored in Pakistan through Chinese credit. Pakistani investment in China is also encouraged, and cross-border trade remains fluid.[16] In 2011 China Kingho Group canceled a $19 billion mining deal because of security concerns.[28]

[edit] Views

The support with which China and Pakistan give each other is considered important in global diplomacy, and has been compared to Israel United States relations.[29] According to a Pew survey of Pakistan public opinion last year, 84 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of China and 16 percent had a favorable view of the United States. These results showed that Pakistan is the most pro-China country in the world.[30] Similarly, the Chinese state-run media has portrayed Pakistan in a favorable light in regional issues. Pakistan and China have long praised the close ties the two countries have with each other. China has been referred to by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as their "time-tested and allweather friend", while in return Chinese president Hu Jintao has referred to Pakistan as "a good friend and partner".[31] These statements are noted by some observers as occurring after Pakistani relations with the United States or India have become strained, such as after Osama Bin Laden was killed by American forces without Pakistan's prior permission. Speaking in Jhelum on November 24, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said that Pakistan-China relations were purely strategic and were not against any other country, and that they would actually help in the promotion of regional and global peace. He had just attended the closing ceremony of a two-week-long Pakistan-China Joint Military Exercise Friendship-IV-2011. Lest the world take him as speaking tongue-in-cheek, he added that Chinas security was dear to Pakistan and such joint exercises would strengthen relations between the two countries, which were facing the common threat of terrorism. He further disarmed regional and global suspicion by pointing to the fact that Pakistan was in the routine of having such joint exercises with other countries as well and had conducted them with 50 other countries. But the sad truth is that conflict is still the working paradigm in South Asia and in the world. When General Kayani said purely strategic relations with China, he probably thought that this would take the adversarial regional mind away from ideas of hostile combinations of force. The fact is that the Jhelum exercise will not fail to elicit negative interpretation and much of that will be based on explanatory statements made in Pakistan but not in China, where foreign policy intent is not worn by the politicians on their sleeves. Unless suspicion is disarmed through codependent trade relations with India, the neighbouring state will go towards seeing any Pakistan-China development as directed against it. India sees much more in the Karakoram Highway, built by the Chinese, than just a trade artery. It says it is a flanking move to challenge India in Kashmir, where Indian troops are deployed, and that Chinese troops are actually deployed in the Gilgit-Baltistan region (something that both Pakistan and China have denied). India has always linked Pakistans nuclear programme and its weaponisation to China. The rest of the world, too, is suspicious of Chinas policy towards South Asia in general and Pakistan-Afghanistan in particular. In Pakistan, strategists dont help by looking at the American presence in Afghanistan as being aimed against China as a challenge to Chinas forward move in Central Asia. Pakistani leaders openly say that new contacts with China should be aimed at shifting Pakistans big traditional dependencies on America to its allweather friend, China. Of course, this can have its negative effects in Pakistan, where cheap Chinese imports could deal a devastating blow to local industry and businesses.

What makes matters worse is that Pakistans relationship with China is as is much of foreign policy dictated by the military which dominates policymaking and sets the narrative and public discourse on how we perceive and deal with the outside world. This is perhaps why we are programmed to look at relations with China as a counter to Indian influence in the region and seem to prefer it over relations with America, which happens to be one of our largest aid donors and largest trading partners. Over time, the elected civilian government in Pakistan needs to take greater ownership of this bilateral relationship so that it can be weaned away from purely defence to social sectors. Right now, the perception that is determined by the armed forces in Pakistan is a fair one, and it is inevitable that the military is the one who stands to benefit the most from it. Of course, this is merely to point out that the benefits of such a deep relationship should accrue also to ordinary Pakistanis, especially in fields which concern and benefit them. Pakistans isolationism and internal civil-military contradictions are retarding its progress towards a prosperous market state that can look after its large population better. To achieve this, Pakistan must stay on the course of normalising its relations with India through free trade and allowing India to trade with Central Asia through its territory the same way it is willing to serve as a transit territory for the movement of goods from Gwadar to the western regions of China. If we were to learn the philosophy behind Chinas conduct in addition to just doing military exercises, we would do what the world wants from us and not adopt an unrealistic defiant posture. Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2011.