Today’s problems

…need today’s solutions

Outdated prisms, the ones that our home-grown Clauswitzes use. Many a column in the press churned out by defence analysts (the best gig around) that seek old, time-tested friends in the face of tense relations with another old ally. China is being touted as a one-stop shop that is going to be the elixir to all our problems. Another fallacy rooted in the paradigms of times long since passed by.

The warmth of our friendship with the Chinese aside, these newer times of great international integration are not suited for the cold-war era approaches of seeking out one power’s favour after falling out with another. The Chinese will meet us only so far. And the Americans will still demand their dues.

And even if that were possible, in some parallel universe, it would do us well to realise that even the Chinese are getting more than antsy over the spillover of our shadow warriors. The Chinese authorities claimed that Islamic extremists were behind the Sunday attack that left 11 people dead in Kashgar city, Xinjiang. And even if they don’t say it, there are no points for guessing who the usual suspects are. We can expect our intelligence czar, set to make a trip to China, to be questioned by his Chinese counterparts about the possibility of any links. Even if the Chinese are convinced, as they should, that there isn’t even a sliver of official patronage to the jihadists of Xinjiang, it still doesn’t rule out the possibility that the Uyghur leaders might have safe havens in the enabling environment the Pakistani tribal – and even settled – areas can provide the international jihad machine.

That having been said, the importance over our relations with China cannot be overstated. Far from just giving Pakistan a helping hand, today’s China can buy off a considerable bit of the gargantuan US debt. How surreal would this look to someone living under a rock since the 70s. Yet another lesson for us to wake up to the changed realities of the times.