I will admit I oversimplified China’s situation. The 1969 conflict had the potential to flare up into a war.
If you re-read my post, I said the Soviet were a “potential existential threat…kept at bay through diplomacy until they collapsed”.
China’s diplomacy , with the Soviets and the Americans helped them see out the Cold War till the Russians were no longer an existential threat.
en.m.wikipedia.org
But this still doesn’t negate my point that pakistan cannot afford to cut its defense spending when India is building up. The only logical option if it is politically possible is to build up the economy; doubling it ASAP, while keeping defense spending the same in absolute dollar amount.
sure, but again, that is not 60 years, which is what you said in the original post i responded to.
china did not have 60 years in which it could spend on the economy and not worry about the military, or "keep at bay through diplomacy" as you say.
it was not until the 80s that china could decrease military spending and that was a major gamble. prior to that china was a enemy to both the soviets and the us.
China only had "powerful" friends like albania/Yugoslavia/later- serbia, and various nations in africa while facing down the us and the soviets. As such, china had 5 million men in arms and spent over 10% of GNP on the military
Does this paint a picture of peace? you take china's current position as though that was china for all its modern history. and china's current position is only a side effect of the 80s-2000 gamble for growth and what it has already achieved now so that even small amounts spent is massive to all others except the us.
all this comes back to, and shows that pakistan could find the space to grow its economy even while facing india. for one, nukes guarantee india could not and would not try to actually try to destroy pakistan, for fear of nuclear retaliation.
Pakistan has similar number of nukes to india which is entirely different from what china faced.
Pakistan also does not face multiple super powers. Pakistan does not even face 1 superpower as a enemy, pakistan faces a regional power.
in fact Pakistan actively has one major power hoping and helping it develop(china). and another who at least isn't greatly impeding you from doing so ( US).
of course none of this help unless you got a government in place that works towards national unity then development. China had Deng, a old school long march hero with solid control over the military and the government to be able to squeeze military budgets without massive push back. unfortunately in these situations, a strongman might just be needed.