February 20 , 2009

 

Zardari’s Visit Brings Pak-China Ties into Focus

 

By the time this appears in print, President Zardari would have reached Shanghai on a three-day visit - Feb 20-23 - to cement further the two countries’ all-weather friendship. Apart from the metropolis known as the hub of China’s economic activities, he would also visit an area in central China, to explore cooperation in water conservation, agriculture, finance and other areas. This is the Pak President’s second visit to China; he chose China for his first official foreign trip in October last. That visit led to an agreement under which China would help Islamabad build two more nuclear power plants.

It may be recalled that Pakistan and China had signed seven agreements on December 15, 2004 strengthening further their ties in the fields of energy, communications, trade and some other socio-economic sectors. Also, they drew up a framework for enhanced economic cooperation.

Those accords were concluded during the visit to Beijing of former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Taking a long-term view, China has already built an all-weather, across the Himalayan range, the Karakoram Highway (KKH), often referred to as the eighth wonder of the world, and has built in record time the Gwader deep sea port on the coast of Pakistan, west of Karachi. A road between KKH and Gwader would provide a closer port for the export of the products of Chinese factories to be located in Western China. Gwader’s strategic value is of no less significance. It gives China access and basing facilities in the Indian Ocean and in close proximity to the Straits of Hormuz.

With a growth rate of over 9 per cent for the past quarter of a century and an unmatched high rate of investment, China has already lifted 300 million people from out of poverty and has reached a level in food production that it will become an international donor under the World Food Program instead of a recipient that it had been for decades.

The KKH stands as a monument to Pak-China friendship. The Heavy Mechanical Complex, the Rebuild Factory, the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant, and the Makran Coastal Highway, are some of the other monuments. A Chinese company is currently engaged in raising the level of Mangla Dam to enhance its storage capacity. China is providing 160 bogeys and 69 engines to help in the modernization of Pak railways. Also, it is improving the signaling and track systems.

Strategic cooperation between the two countries has been exemplary.

A section of the world media, inimical to Pakistan, had commenced predicting that as a consequence of the 9/11 tragedy and the willingness of Pakistan to be embraced by the US, the close strategic cooperation between Pakistan and China would get diluted, and the political and economic ties would lose their glitter. Events have proved wrong all such predictions. There is no discernible shift in the friendly, mutually beneficial and trustful relations between the two.

The Pakistan-China strategic alliance did not emerge as a matter of convenience. Strategic compulsions led to it, and strategic convergences continue to exist. It was not born from Cold War compulsions. It would therefore continue to be the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign and strategic policies. China is perceived in Pakistan as a bulwark against an over-domineering United States. The US military assistance to Pakistan is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as the instigator for periodic military takeover of the country by an army considered to be subservient to American interests.

The people at large view the Chinese as their true and sincere friends. The Chinese have meticulously avoided any action likely to offend the people’s susceptibilities. China’s political strength is regarded as an assurance of stability in Asia. It has eschewed domination and pursued vehemently the promotion of a peaceful environment in its neighborhood. It has therefore settled its borders with almost all its neighbors.

Pakistan ’s desire for maximum balance and diversification in its external relations has led it to close relations with China. It has been a valuable geopolitical connection. In 1950 Pakistan recognized the new People’s Republic of China. It was the third non-communist state and the first Muslim country to do so.

The Sino-Indian border clash of 1962 provided new opportunities for Pakistan’s relations with China. The two countries demarcated their border and agreed to build the KKH. Pakistan’s China connection enabled it to facilitate the 1971 visit of Henry Kissinger to that country. In the 1980s China and the US supplied military and economic assistance through Pakistan to the Afghan freedom fighters.

The Chinese, it is relevant to point out here, are an introvert, narcissist people. They built the Great Wall to keep the ‘uncultured, foreign barbarian’ out of their ‘great middle kingdom’. Their patriotism is rooted in a long, humiliating century in which foreign imperialists carved out spheres of influence and reduced the highly advanced society to the status of the ‘sick man of Asia’ or in the words of Sun Yat-sen, the first great Chinese leader of modern era, to ‘a sheet of loose sand’.

The introvert Chinese seldom considered it dignified to cross swords with any foreign ‘barbarian’ power. Hence, they did not build a worthwhile navy and were therefore beaten by the British in the opium war of the mid-nineteenth century. Coming out of the opium-induced stupor after independence in 1949, they experimented with a foreign ideology –Communism - and shifted to market economy after the demise of Mao in 1976 without totally abandoning the centrally controlled system. The mix of the two has enabled China to produce various manufactured goods at export prices that cannot be beaten by manufacturers elsewhere. It has within a couple of decades emerged as the manufacturing floor of the world.

Pakistan , on the other hand, is still suffering from the fallout of the Afghan war. It emerged from it as an economically emaciated and socially retarded country inflicted with a Klashnikov culture, addicted to easy money from heroin and smuggling, and an erosion of respect for law. Many young men bid farewell to books and picked up arms to fight the Soviet infidels. These freedom fighters were pampered by the US and other Western intelligence agencies and trained in guerrilla warfare. They are decidedly the product of the Afghan war; so are the Taliban.

The Chinese have invariably taken a long-term view of geo-strategic compulsions and maintained their thrust of friendship and cooperation with Pakistan. The first Chinese built a 300MW nuclear power plant that went into operation almost a decade back, the second is expected to be completed within the next two years. A joint-ventured Chinese-Pakistan tank, Al-Khalid, went into full production seven years back. A multi-role aircraft is likely to go into mass production this year.

A free trade agreement signed recently will provide China the opportunity of setting up industries in Pakistan and will provide free trade zones to Pakistan on Chinese soil.

Pakistan can benefit a lot by learning from the Chinese as to how to develop a national consensus, have their priorities right, and how to subordinate political leaders’ personal ambitions, partisan priorities or the interests of the man in uniform to national dictates. The visit will thus be no less rewarding for Mr. Zardari who is now the most important leader of Pakistan.

- arifhussaini@hotmail.com