Note: Due to the length of the article. This is the continuation of the first part.
Seeing increasing tensions between USSR and China, Washington
wanted to capitalize the development by approaching China secretly. China asked
US to come through Pakistan. This was the paramount example of friendship and trust.
This adds to the global image of Pakistan. Washington approached Islamabad and
asked to play its role of good office and Pakistan did respond it well. Henry
Kissinger went to China on Pakistan International Airline (PIA) on July 9,
1971. This trip accomplished an agreement that President Nixon would visit
China in 1972.[1]
Pakistan was praised internationally and US congratulated Pakistan for its
services. Not only US, China also approached Muslim countries through Pakistan
and relation between Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and China is an eminent example of
the diplomatic assistance that Pakistan provided to China. 1970’s is important
in Sino-Pakistani relation because Pakistan decided to acquire the great
neutralizer, atomic bomb, after the fall of East Pakistan. International
community was against Pakistan’s ambitions except China. On several visits to
Beijing, China assured Pakistan of assistance. Diang Xioping expressed Chinese
policy in 1975 in following words:[2]
“[China does] not advocate nuclear proliferation at all, but we
even more oppose nuclear monopolies.”
Chinese
rational on assisting Pakistan in acquiring nuclear bomb was not only based
upon Pakistan’s balancing role in the region but China was also in need of
assistance of the high enrichment technologies for its nuclear program.[3]
Therefore, both Pakistan and China, proved vital for each other and a strategic
relation was reaffirmed as both were deprived of certain Western technologies.
Chinese nuclear program was not capable to counter US and Soviet threat as it
was nowhere near to their technologies. Therefore, Pakistan offered China to
share the technologies, particularly the designs of centrifuge that Dr.
A.Q.Khan had bought from URENCO’s facilities in Netherland.[4]
Such an offer was not made to China by any country. Hence, this cooperation
between China-Pakistan was two way and strategic relation is the one that
entails the benefit of both the parties. Dr. A.Q.Khan also handed over his work
on centrifuge rotors to Chinese scientists, to strengthen the China-Pakistan
defense cooperation.[5]
China helped Pakistan whole heartedly by providing five lead-lined, stainless
steel boxes each containing 10 single-kilogram ingots of highly enriched
uranium (HEU) enough for two atomic bombs in 1982. China had already given 15
tons of uranium hexafluoride (UHF) to ensure that Pakistan’s nuclear program
continued according to schedule.[6] This
was the first time when a nuclear country proliferated HEU to a non-nuclear
state but not the last time, as China again exported five thousand ring magnets
in 1994, which helped Pakistan to double its production of highly-enriched
uranium.[7]
Andrew Small describes this cooperation:
“If military relationship lies at the heart of China-Pakistan ties,
nuclear weapon lies at the heart of the military relationship.”
Though China
faced international isolation followed by two-year freeze of high technology
sale to Beijing but this did not stop China in helping Pakistan to pursue
nuclear bomb and in May 1998 Pakistan emerged as a seventh nuclear country in
the world with nuclear tests in Chaghi, Baluchistan. This defense cooperation
continued to achieve new milestones in the form of JF-17 Thunder, in response
to American refusal of F-16s to Pakistan, in November 2009, Al-Khalid tank in
1990s and Pakistan’s first cruise missile manufactured in 2005 based upon
Chinese model of DH-10 [8] are
examples of Sino-Pakistani strategic relation. Pakistan and China have cooperated with each
other in all aspects except in commercial economy, aspect of economy that is
tied with the exchange of goods and services[9],
and Andrew Small quote Ye Hailin[10],
in this context:
The objective [of Pakistan-China relation] has not been to
strengthen the two countries welfare interests but to strengthen them against
common threats.”
Realizing that economy now plays a greater
role in strategic relations of countries, leaders of two strategic partners
felt the need to enhance their relations in commercial economy as well, so as
to strengthen their strategic relations.
Pakistan
and China are natural trade partners. The current boarder between two nations
is a part of traditional Silk route used for the trade of spices, cotton and
porcelain. This trade route has been revamped in the form of China’s One Belt
One Road Initiative and of which China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $62
billion project, is a flagship project. CPEC fills the gap of commercial
economy in China-Pakistan strategic relations. CPEC is a corridor from Kashgar,
Xianjiang, China to Pakistan’s port city of Gwadar. It has three routes;
Western, Central and Eastern route. Along its way from Kashgar to Gwadar there
will be industrial and economic parks. CPEC will make both countries strategically
important for each other. China sees CPEC as an important gateway for its
transformation from regional to global power and an opportunity to extend its
reach from Indian Ocean to Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.[11]
Moreover, 40% of China’s oil comes from Gulf States and currently it has to
cover 16,000 km to reach Eastern China’s ports of Shanghai and Shenzhen, crossing Straits of Malacca and South China Sea. With the
control of its global competitor, US, on Strait of Malacca and increasing
tensions in South China Sea, China cannot afford to remain dependent on any
other force in order to accomplish its aims of global power. Moreover, CPEC
will reduce 16,000 km of distance to only 5,000 km.[12]
It will also provide China access to African states, in order to fulfill
requirement of raw material for its increasing industry. CPEC will also give
China a strategic depth in the Indian Ocean, as Gawadar port is a part of Chinese
policy of “String of Pearl”, a string of sea ports in Indian Ocean.[13] However, Pakistan is a potential beneficiary in
this project. It will enhance the stagnant economy of Pakistan by increasing
its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to about 1.5-2% annually.[14]
Currently, Pakistan has a shortfall of 7000MW and it shed 2-2.5% of its annual
GDP[15].
CPEC will reduce the energy shortfall as
71% of the total amount has been allocated for energy projects [16]and
notable projects include Sahiwal 2x660MW Coal-fired Power Plant, Punjab,
2×660MW Coal-fired Power Plants at Port Qasim Karachi and Thar Mine Mouth
Oracle Power Plant ( 1320MW) & surface mine.[17]
Accumulatively it will add 12,610MW electricity to Pakistan’s national grid.
Moreover, 21% of CPEC investment is in the infrastructure sector[18],
which includes the extension of Karakoram Highway (KKH), Capacity Development
of Pakistan Railways and Peshawar-Karachi Motorway (Multan-Sukkur Section).[19] The
rest of 2% is invested to cater Pakistan’s requirement of Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG).[20]
CPEC will not only help China to eradicate militancy in Xinjiang province but
will also help Pakistan to counter insurgencies in Baluchistan. CPEC, will
increase the diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. Rejecting India’s
concerns over the CPEC going through Gilgit Baltistan, condemning Indian
backing of Baluchistan insurgencies, supporting Pakistan’s inclusion in Nuclear
Supplier Group in response to Indian application and vetoing bid to black list
Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammad are events that occur after the approval of
CPEC and are prime examples of enhanced diplomatic support between Beijing and
Islamabad.[21]
Consequently, Pakistan and China
relation is a paramount example of strategic relations. Unlike, US relations
with European countries, Pakistan and China do not share same civilizational
and cultural background but still their friendship is no less than US-EU nexus.
Beijing-Islamabad partnership has defined the geo-politics of the South Asia
and has played a major role in balancing relations in the region. Though, both
countries had strong security and diplomatic relations but lacked economic
relations and have bilateral trade of $16 billion, even less than China-Vietnam
trade of $64 billion where Vietnam has economy half the size of Pakistan.[22]
However, this missing brick has been placed in the form of CPEC and has strengthened
the existing strategic relations between China and Pakistan by giving their
relation a new direction.
Total Words
Including footnotes: 2689
Bibliography
CPEC official Website. CPEC-Infrastructure Priority Projects.
http://cpec.gov.pk/infrastructure
Ebrahim, Zofeen T.
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: A boon for the economy, a bane for
locals. 12 May 2016. https://www.dawn.com/news/1236159
How will CPEC boost Pakistan economy? https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pk/Documents/risk/pak-china-eco-corridor-deloittepk-noexp.pdf
Indo-Soviet relations. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/16826/8/08_chapter%201.pdf
Kiani,Kaleeq. Power cuts
return as shortfall touches 7,000MW.8 May,2017. https://www.dawn.com/news/1331738
Naseem,Imran and Khan, Jawad. Impact
of Energy Crisis on Economic Growth of Pakistan. Vol.7,
2015. http://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JAAS/article/download/19574/19442
Riffat, Hamza and Maini, Tridivesh Singh. The China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor: Strategic Rationales, External Perspectives, and Challenges
to Effective Implementation.
Roche, Elizabeth. China again blocks bid in UN to list Masood Azhar
as a global terrorist. 2 Nov. 2017. https://www.livemint.com/Politics/ABEmOW05luaAgJjaVcrfqI/China-says-no-consensus-over-listing-Masood-Azhar-as-global.html
Small, Andrew. The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics.
Hurst & Company, London,2007.
US-China Institute. Getting To Beijing: Henry Kissinger's Secret
1971 Trip. 21 July 2011.
https://china.usc.edu/getting-beijing-henry-kissingers-secret-1971-trip
Zeb, Rizwan. PAKISTAN-CHINA RELATIONS: WHERE THEY GO FROM HERE?
UNISCI Discussion Papers, Nº 29, May 2012.
https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/UNIS/article/viewFile/40659/38981.
[1]
US-China Institute,Getting To Beijing: Henry Kissinger's Secret 1971 Trip, 21
July 2011, https://china.usc.edu/getting-beijing-henry-kissingers-secret-1971-trip.
[2] Small,
The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 27
[4] Small,
The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 33
[5]
Small, The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 34
[6]
Small, The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 34
[7]
Small, The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 41
[8]
Small, The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 41
[9] Business
Dictionary, http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/commercial-economy.html
[10] Director
of the Center for International Strategic Studies of the Research Institute
[11]
Small, The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 1
[12]
Zofeen T. Ebrahim, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: A boon for the economy, a
bane for locals,12 May 2016, https://www.dawn.com/news/1236159
[13] Hamza
Riffat and Tridivesh Singh Maini, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Strategic
Rationales, External Perspectives, and Challenges to Effective Implementation,
Page 8.
[14] Riffat
and Maini, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Page 4
[15]
Riffat and Maini, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Page 4
[16] Riffat
and Maini, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Page 7
[17] CPEC
official Website, CPEC-Energy Priority Projects, http://cpec.gov.pk/energy
[18] Riffat
and Maini, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Page 7
[19] CPEC
official Website, CPEC-Infrastructure Priority Projects,
http://cpec.gov.pk/infrastructure
[20] Riffat
and Maini, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Page 7
[21] Elizabeth
Roche, China again blocks bid in UN to list Masood Azhar as a global terrorist,2
Nov. 2017, https://www.livemint.com/Politics/ABEmOW05luaAgJjaVcrfqI/China-says-no-consensus-over-listing-Masood-Azhar-as-global.html
[22]
Small, The China-Pakistan Axis, Page 96
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