Sorry, Pakistan: China Is No Sugar Daddy, Pakistan is not central to Beijing's wider ambitions Options

[myolinewu]

Sorry, Pakistan: China Is No Sugar Daddy

With the Obama administration's recent decision to suspend some $800 million in U.S. aid to the Pakistani military, the generals in Rawalpindi are once again turning to their "all-weather" friends in Beijing. Although the White House's action is unlikely to lead to a total cutoff of military assistance, the figure is significant, representing more than one-third of the United States' annual commitment to Pakistan.

Reflecting his government's displeasure at the move, Islamabad's ambassador to Beijing, Masood Khan, pointedly announced that "China will stand by us in difficult times as it has been doing for the past years." His statement was designed to show Washington that Pakistan has other powerful friends. Implicit in Khan's message was also an expectation that Beijing would indeed provide enhanced military, and perhaps other, assistance.


Are Pakistani leaders unduly optimistic about Chinese largesse? Or does Washington's loss of influence provide Beijing an opportunity to deepen its ties with Islamabad?

On the face of it, there are ample historic and strategic reasons for China to increase military aid to Pakistan. After all, Islamabad is Beijing's closest ally in South Asia, and both are keen to limit Indian influence.

Pakistan has also benefited from substantial trade and economic ties with China, particularly in infrastructure and mining. Beijing is Pakistan's largest trading partner, a relationship that was worth almost $9 billion last year.

Military ties have been a key feature of Sino-Pakistani relations; Beijing is now Islamabad's largest defense supplier. China has helped build elements of Pakistan's conventional and nuclear forces. It has participated in joint aircraft manufacturing programs, as well as helped Islamabad acquire tactical ballistic missiles, according to Jane's, and sensitive nuclear technology.

China's worries over its internal security provide a further motivation to bolster Pakistan's stability. Concerns about Islamist militancy on its western border have grown since the 2009 Uighur riots in the Xinjiang autonomous region, which left nearly 200 people dead. Violence once again broke out in the restive region this week, though not on the same scale as two years ago. In the remote town of Hotan, state media claimed that police shot dead 14 rioters, heightening tensions between the central government and the Uighur community.

The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), a Uighur separatist group that Beijing often blames for terrorist attacks within China, appears to have a sanctuary in the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan. TIP leaders were killed in South Waziristan and North Waziristan, in September 2003 and February 2010, respectively. Chinese leaders fear that the reduction in U.S. military aid to Pakistan -- coupled with the impending drawdown of American troops from Afghanistan -- could afford the Uighurs a safe haven outside Beijing's control.

Indeed, Afghanistan looms large in China's strategic calculus. Media reports highlighting the discovery of nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan surely have piqued Chinese interest in bolstering relations with Kabul. With its export-oriented economy heavily dependent on raw material imports, the prospect of cheap resources on China's periphery is understandably appealing. Acutely aware that Pakistan's generals will play an integral role in Afghanistan's future, Beijing will be keen to leverage its close ties with Rawalpindi.

But only up to a point.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011...wpisrc=obinsite

[arabianights]

another example of west's divide and conquer at work

dream on

[fireplant]

They keep saying the same $hit about China and Russia. Why does the West act so desperate?

[Yerroperil]

They want everyone who does not have pale skin to see them as overlords and how other countries can't succeed without the West.

[fireplant]

white people don't get enough love at home, so they dump all their mental garbage on the rest of us.

This post has been edited by fireplant: Aug 15 2011, 08:13 PM

[Megapower]

There is a reason why China gave Pakistan the nuclear bomb...

There is a reason why Pakistan speaks very highly of China in front of her Islamic peer brethrens, despite Chinese occupation of East Turkestan (Xinjiang).

There is a reason why Pakistan has offered the Gwadar Port for Chinese navy.

There is a reason why China supplies Pakistan with the most advanced military aircraft in her arsenal, and jointly conducts projects on military fabrication, design, and construction.



This post has been edited by Megapower: Aug 15 2011, 09:51 PM

[InitialDJay]

There is a reason why China gave Pakistan the nuclear bomb...

There is a reason why Pakistan speaks very highly of China in front of her Islamic peer brethrens, despite Chinese occupation of East Turkestan (Xinjiang).

There is a reason why Pakistan has offered the Gwadar Port for Chinese navy.

There is a reason why China supplies Pakistan with the most advanced military aircraft in her arsenal, and jointly conducts projects on military fabrication, design, and construction.

china didn't give pakistan nuclear bomb. get your fact straight!

[Megapower]

China holds the territorial integrity of Pakistani sovereign territory to the greatest degree or stand available to foreign powers associated with the Great China.


In fact, China used her one of her only six vetoes on the declaration of independence of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and her admission into the UN.

Only other times when China used the veto was peacekeeping operations in Guatemala and another African state who recognized Taiwan (ROC).

Other times include her de-facto vassal state, Burma from criticism of human rights record, etc...

[Chiphoenix]

There is a reason why Pakistan speaks very highly of China in front of her Islamic peer brethrens, despite Chinese occupation of East Turkestan (Xinjiang).

Hi Megapower, are you a Chinese? It's strange that you use the same propaganda than the Uyghur separatists. Occupation????

The only ones who use the name of East Turkestan, instead of Xinjiang, are the Uyghur separatists, the Turks and certains anti-Chinese/China. There is nothing called East Turkestan in that region! There is only XINJIANG!!

This post has been edited by Chiphoenix: Aug 16 2011, 09:57 AM

[Megapower]

Stupid idiot.

The only reason why the Muslim world hasn't turned on China despite China's ethnic tension with Turkic Muslim Uyghurs is because PAKISTAN says China is a good friend to the Islamic world.

STupid idiot.

Yes, I should have used Xinjiang instead of East Turkestan, but I was trying to make a point - and I was not support any independence. Read my posts again in Context you idiot.

This post has been edited by Megapower: Aug 17 2011, 06:07 PM

[arabianights]

it's a legit question, no need for being negative towards him

[fireplant]

Hi Megapower, are you a Chinese? It's strange that you use the same propaganda than the Uyghur separatists. Occupation????

The only ones who use the name of East Turkestan, instead of Xinjiang, are the Uyghur separatists, the Turks and certains anti-Chinese/China. There is nothing called East Turkestan in that region! There is only XINJIANG!!

He's just saying that from a possible muslim perspective, to emphasize that Pakistan has NOT taken that perspective. Dude, please learn to read!

[Megapower]

^ Thank you.

Let's be straightforward and honest here... Without Pakistani covert China's @$$ on this one... you would see a lot more terrorist incidents in China...but China has explicitly asked Pakistan to help weed these Muslim Extremist groups out... and Pakistan has done China great favors in deterring Uyghur extremists, separatists, and terrorist from bombing China even more than it has already.

For example, Pakistan was China's Islamic Ambassador to the Maldives... a group of islands strategically located in the heart of Indian ocean overlooking China's oil shipping supply lines, where 80% of her oil flows through from Middle East.

Pakistan literally got China a naval submarine base in Maldives, because Pakistan was China's Islamic trump card to getting her foot into an Muslim Islamic country/world...

Obviously I do not suggest Xinjiang or Turkic Uyghur independence movement - I was trying to emphasize from the Muslim perspective and how Pakistan really is an important ambassador for China in the Islamic world.

[fireplant]

^ Thank you.

Let's be straightforward and honest here... Without Pakistani covert China's @$$ on this one... you would see a lot more terrorist incidents in China...but China has explicitly asked Pakistan to help weed these Muslim Extremist groups out... and Pakistan has done China great favors in deterring Uyghur extremists, separatists, and terrorist from bombing China even more than it has already.

For example, Pakistan was China's Islamic Ambassador to the Maldives... a group of islands strategically located in the heart of Indian ocean overlooking China's oil shipping supply lines, where 80% of her oil flows through from Middle East.

Pakistan literally got China a naval submarine base in Maldives, because Pakistan was China's Islamic trump card to getting her foot into an Muslim Islamic country/world...

Obviously I do not suggest Xinjiang or Turkic Uyghur independence movement - I was trying to emphasize from the Muslim perspective and how Pakistan really is an important ambassador for China in the Islamic world.

I agree. The other great thing about Pakistan is they don't get into the sunni-shiite sectarian conflict. They're the only nuclear Islamic country (in which they were assisted by China). So for them to consider China their "all weather friend" over four decades of relationship has to carry a huge weight.

I didn't know about the Maldives base. Is it some kind of refueling base? Has it been used by Chinese subs yet?