Thanks for the comments. Please excuse the fact that I will answer many of the comments in one shot instead of quoting each one.
Firstly about India. I am not a false flag Indian
. I am sure there will be a long line of Indians here willing to attest that!
But I am also not rabidly anti-India (well, depends on the day
). I acknowledge we have an ongoing geopolitical conflict with India and both sides are going for the jugular, but I don't believe it is a religious conflict or an ethnic one. We are basically the same people with very much shared culture. This will make some Pakistanis angry but I believe an average person from Karachi/Lahore would fit in just fine in Mumbai/Delhi, and vice versa.
And I do admire India for certain things they have done better than Pakistan. They do make democracy work. They have a pretty decent education system. They have developed their soft power far beyond their actual military or economic muscle.
So I believe that, once the geopolitical conflict is resolved, India and Pakistan can have excellent relations indeed. Most people on both sides would want that.
However, right now, we are in a cold war and things are actually getting worse. As India becomes stronger and gains powerful, global allies, it is becoming more arrogant. It treats Pakistan almost with disdain, acting like a superpower, instead of as an equal adversary to be treated with mutual respect to resolve matters diplomatically. The Mumbai 26/11 saga is one example where India treated the situation as a US v/s Afghanistan scenario. The truth is that India is not the US, and Pakistan is not Afghanistan. But India doesn't want to admit it. It is getting drunk on its newfound popularity with the West.
Now, coming to China and the premise of this thread, let's clarify a few points.
The Pakistan-China relationship is quite similar in some ways to the Russia-India relationship. Not much deep cultural exchange, but a solid foundation of shared, mutual geopolitical interests that have stood the test of time. If anything, the China-Pakistan strategic relationship is even stronger.
In opening this thread, I was primarily motivated by a desire to see more cultural exchange and far deeper ties between China and Pakistan. Chinese culture is one of the pillars of human civilization and I don't think enough Pakistani children learn that. Similarly, I would like to believe that Pakistan is respected and supported by most ordinary Chinese people, rather than just a handful of policy makers in Beijing. As China becomes more democratic, we want its government to continue supporting us because its people want to, not because of some obscure geopolitical calculus.
Right now we have a serious image problem around the world; the least we can expect is that our friends understand our side of the story. This requires effort on both sides. The Chinese government and media need to showcase Pakistani culture. And Pakistan needs to develop its soft power so we can project a positive image to the rest of the world.
Finally, I agree that, as countries, China and India will always have an undercurrent of competition, even rivalry, which will prevent their governments forming the kind of close relationship that China and Pakistan enjoy. But, given the gap in soft-power projection between Pakistan and India, a more democratic Chinese government may be forced to make concessions to India that are detrimental to Pakistan.
