It is truly a model relationship. Ever since the two Asian neighbors established diplomatic ties in 1962, the beneficial effects of the relationship for each have only multiplied.
The Pakistan-China relationship is one in which a high level of political will has been invested so that it proactively responds to the demands of a changing context. Hence it has survived geostrategic changes including wars, uprisings, invasions, breakup of nations and rapprochements.
Improving Sino-Indian relations since 1989, the demise of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a unipolar world, Pakistan’s participation as a leading country in the war on terror, and finally the Indo-US strategic convergence — all have led to changes in China’s national agenda influencing its relationship with Pakistan. President Hu Jintao’s recent visit to Pakistan, the first in a decade by a Chinese president, has further cemented these ties. Hu Jintao framed this strategic relationship in traditional terminology: “It is higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the Indian Ocean and sweeter than honey.”
The outcome of the Hu visit has been a free trade agreement which promises to triple bilateral trade to $15 billion in 5 years, boost Chinese investment in Pakistan, set up joint production of the AWACs warning systems and continue with energy cooperation.
Pakistan’s relationship with China was born out of the single necessity of security. Faced with abiding hostility from a bigger neighbor that initially questioned the very existence of the country, Pakistan sought security, first, through external military alliances and later, through an indigenously developed nuclear deterrent. It was its search for security in a hostile neighborhood and its unhappy experience with an undependable ally that made Pakistan opt for what was first a security relationship that subsequently would become the anchor of its defense and foreign policy.
Specifically for Pakistan, the 1962 US-India military deal resulted in its opening up to China in a historic switching from its earlier policy of total dependence on Washington. For China the relationship was a means for breaking out of international isolation and for checkmating Indian power. China still feels grateful to Pakistan for opening up when it was isolated. When PIA flew the first international flight to Shanghai, Premier Chou En Lai was there to receive the passengers.
China has been adept at strategically and nonaggressively managing relationships — an advice it has passed on to its friend as well.
Pakistan has consistently pursued its foreign policies with security as its major element. Its relations with the US have grown but not at the cost of its friendship with China. China itself has relations with the US. Meanwhile the Sino-Indian engagement that began in 1989 under Rajiv Gandhi did not see any downturn in Pakistan-Chinese relations. China believes the era of alliances and block formations is over. It seeks improved ties in its neighborhood and much beyond. Advocating a free trade agreement in India, the Chinese president said: “If India and China take the necessary steps to strengthen trade and business, the 21st century will be Asia’s.”
As China has pursued its own interest it has also encouraged Pakistan to pursue pragmatic policies. For example China cautions Pakistan against taking on ill-advised battles with India. Meanwhile China is a major trading partner with Pakistan accounting for nearly 11 percent of Pakistani imports. In 2005 the trade between the two countries was $4.25 billion — a 40 percent increase. The most concrete manifestation of the deepening of Sino-Pakistan ties is the joint Gwador project.
Pakistan is also diversifying its security portfolio. Going beyond conventional and nonconventional means of deterrence, Pakistan is now seeking security through economic development and trade. Its trade figures with China, Afghanistan and India have all shot up. The entry of Afghanistan and China into SAARC and that of Pakistan and India into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) point toward the realization that economic cooperation and integration is imperative for regional progress and political moderation.
There is a shared logic that guides the mutual interests of this relationship. This shared logic shapes the national security policies of the two — one an emerging global power and the other a rising Asian power. This relationship is effectively adapting to the changing regional and global scenarios.
The Sino-Pakistan relationship is also one through which multiple, and potentially explosive fault lines — religious, economic, political and geographical — run. Undoubtedly it is key to determining the future of the Asian continent.
