- US jingoistic policies might trigger new Cold War
Though China-Pakistan ties are nothing new, being the brainchild of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and blossoming post 1965 after the US imposed a moratorium on arms sales, the relationship has lately assumed sinister implications for Washington especially in the context of Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor. President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative for ‘enhancing regional connectivity and embracing a brighter future’ by building vast communication networks, desperately- needed power plants and economic zones, is perceived as a smokescreen for furthering Chinese influence, both financial, through so-called ‘debt trap’, and military, by acquisition of bases, among participating countries. Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, its resurgent military under strongman Putin, and conversely, NATO inroads in Eastern Europe, Russia’s backyard, indeed front yard, plus tough US sanctions on Moscow and its escalating trade war with China, have strained relations between them to dangerous levels. The active involvement of Chinese contingent in the biggest Russian war games since 1981 held in Siberia from September 11-17, and heightened Russia-Chinese political collaboration no doubt add to US fears of a ‘revisionist’ authoritarian model that threatens its long established ‘free and open’ world order.
This fraught situation is compounded by retired generals and leftover Cold War warriors dominating US decision making, with perpetually besieged and tactless President Trump occupying the White House at this critical juncture. Rudely jettisoned by Washington, Pakistan is presently caught in the crosshair of these intense rivalries, having first to endure the flippant and monotonous ‘do more’ on Afghanistan and Haqqani network, and losing out on US aid, even Coalition Support Funding, a mean and vindictive act, driving it logically towards the Chinese-Russian worldview. The US budget proposals for 2019 and Pentagon 2018 report on China, reflect Washington’s obsessions over the duo’s budding strategic partnership, and proclaim its own resolve for a lethal deterrence to their perceived military threat, along with a ‘constellation of allies and partners’. Foremost among the latter is India, with its own dark design and axe to grind, and the US pandering blindly to its every whim in a vain and desperate attempt to contain China’s rise. Washington too must face long overdue truths about its own policy failings, miscalculations, and failures.