I know this will sound funny, but I believe that there is an unsound foundation to China's incredible rise. I believe that much of that rise was a recovery of lost ground, and that the policies of the CPC had little or nothing to do with it. If anything it has contributed to the degradation of the environment to a significant degree, and to the exploitation of its own people for the benefit of a handful of their citizens. In the international sphere, it has proved to be the ultimate bad neighbour; among their neighbours, friends and the sceptical are present in equal numbers.
There is also an unsound foundation in Pakistan's relations with China.
Pakistan has put its faith in China but it is a dubious proposition with little or no future. Pakistan had earlier become a member of the American camp, fully, without half-measures; it is interesting to view the contortions needed to justify a walk across to the camp of the biggest threat to US power in the world. The Pakistan marriage of convenience with the US lasted through the Afghan war; it was abandoned, felt slighted and moved to a closer relationship with China almost immediately thereafter. The original engagement lasted forty years. The new one has already lasted nearly thirty years, just to put matters in perspective. It will be interesting to see Pakistan's fate in the next fifteen years.
One of the worst aspects of Pakistan's get-together with China is the total lack of any higher principle than that of mutual self-interest and a shared hatred of a third party. Should there be a higher purpose in the 'realpolitik' world of international relations? The vast majority of analysts will disagree; I believe that the cold calculation that lies under it, however soon it is buried under a film of economic or social or geo-political virtue, vitiates it.
This in no way places Indian policies, internal or external, at a higher plane or a higher level. However, in the basic contradiction between a state founded on parochial grounds and owing allegiance to a transcendental set of beliefs, and one founded on the rights of the individual, and the sovereignty of the people, while Pakistan has chosen to be hostile to one example of this model, it has chosen to ally itself to another example (however distorted that model might be in terms of genuine representation of popular wishes and desires). This is plain contradictory, and it does not require the subtle analysis of a Mao Zedong to find it discovered in the full glare of day.
It will not be given to all of us to see the drama unfold, but some on this forum (not I) may watch the entire cycle. May you all live in interesting times.
I realised quite late that I quite agreed with the contents of this post, although my own analysis varied enormously. Thank you, Sir.