Pakistan has enjoyed a remarkably close relationship with China from early years of its independence. Considering that the two countries have been ideologically far apart, and have at times even belonged to two opposite blocs, China-Pakistan friendship has aroused considerable curiosity and various explanations have been offered for this seemingly odd couple. Indian observers have described this friendship as being based on opportunism, expediency and even collusion directed mainly against India, there was little else which was common between Pakistan and China.
Friendship between Pakistan and China has remained unaffected by the 1971 War. The Chinese have continued to extend significant moral and material support to Pakistan. In the meantime, China has liberalised its economic policies and achieved remarkable success in raising its exports and per capita income. Politically, China feels no longer menaced by the super powers. The Soviet Union is no more there and its successor Russia is a very different country. The US has, despite some differences, established a harmonious relationship with China.
Since the 1980s, China’s relations with India have also improved, until the BJP Government in India unexpectedly soured the pitch in 1998. Under these circumstances, China no longer needs Pakistan in the manner it did in the 1960s and the 1970s, though it continues to show goodwill towards Pakistan and remains helpful to the latter in concrete ways. Nevertheless, it would be unwise for Pakistani policymakers to expect China to give the kind of assistance which it did in the past in any kind of confrontation with India.
SAMIA MALIK
Lahore
