Enduring partnership with China

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Enduring partnership with China​

By Farhan Bokhari, Special to Gulf News
Published: 00:00 September 26, 2010

China's decision this week to announce plans for building a large nuclear energy plant in Pakistan in future aimed at helping the south Asian country overcome its acute electricity shortages, yet again underscores the centrality of Beijing's support for Islamabad.

Setting aside western concerns over Pakistan's previous history of nuclear proliferation, China's decision points towards some key realities. Among Pakistan's foreign allies and partners, China is the only one that has earned the most respect as a country which has never let down Islamabad.

It is therefore not surprising that across Pakistan, an oft repeated popular phrase is indeed ‘Pak-Cheen dosti zindabad' or long live Pakistan-China friendship. For the US and others in the West, often left to mull over the best way to improve their ties with Pakistan, China's history as a friend of the south Asian country must provide a valuable and illustrative lesson.

The relationship began flourishing after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan which was followed by a cooling off in ties between Pakistan and the United States, principally driven by Washington retaliating against its only south Asian ally at the time.

Within a year of that conflict, Pakistan purchased its first significant batch of fighter aircraft from China, laying the foundation of a relationship that has only strengthened in time. Today, most Pakistanis do not speak Chinese or know China first hand. The same could be said about the overwhelming majority of China's population. Yet, the passion which unites these two countries that otherwise have few commonalities to share, has much to do with an element of hard-earned mutual trust.

For Pakistan, China's promises to the country have never been broken. Moreover, there is tangible evidence of China stepping in to support Pakistan in ways that the western world never did.

In the 1970s, after India's maiden nuclear test of 1974 caused fears of security threat to Pakistan, it was China which helped to lay the foundation stone of Pakistan's nuclear programme.

Though Pakistan's nuclear programme became autonomous and indigenous by 1998, when the country carried out its first nuclear tests, the reality of past relations remains a powerful and a compelling one. Though China has known links to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, it has built one nuclear power reactor while work is continuing on a second one, bearing evidence of China's contribution to Pakistan's development. Without China's assistance and support, Pakistan could never have launched its nuclear programme to enable the country to acquire self-reliance in this field.

Development projects

Other tangible bits of evidence that point towards the reliability and endurance of Pakistan's relations with China, include Beijing's support to build up parts of the army's hardware development programme.

Additional evidence on this front points towards major development projects, notably the Karakoram highway which opened up parts of northern Pakistan, close to China's border, and linked that isolated region to the rest of Pakistan. Going forward, China continues to remain a silent but close partner of Pakistan, demonstrating a clear cut eagerness to never let down its neighbour.

In sharp contrast to the case of China is indeed the case of Pakistan's relations with the United States, the so-called sole global superpower. Although the past decade has seen billions of dollars in US assistance flow through to Pakistan, this relationship suffers from a considerable and in some ways growing trust deficit.

In certain areas, the relationship with the US continues to remain narrowly based and surrounded by cooperation of the kind that has simply failed to even begin changing Pakistan's mainstream public opinion. While Pakistan may be able to showcase areas of cooperation with the US such as the delivery of a batch of brand new F-16 fighter planes, its broad public is likely to remain unimpressed as military hardware has no relevance to progress by the mainstream population. At the same time, there is also ample evidence over much in terms of US lip service to important causes in Pakistan.

A case in point to such lip service is the matter of US promises to create ROZs or reconstruction opportunity zones in the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

These zones were meant to work for production of industrial goods that will receive preferable access to the US market. Years have passed since the idea was first floated, though without progress by the US in first getting approval of new laws to support the initiative and then seeing through the creation of ROZs.

China's method of dealing with such a case would have probably been to quietly work in making it happen and of course then basking in the glory of success, only to receive greater support from the Pakistani public.

gulfnews : Enduring partnership with China