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At Large
Pakistan and China: Strengthening Ties
Pakistan and China are bonding over a common enemy: the United States.
As U.S. military operations in Afghanistan drag on, a strengthening relationship between Pakistan and China has emerged as tensions between the former and the United States continue to grow.
Of particular interest are the trilateral meeting just held between Chinese, Saudi and Pakistani intelligence officials in Islamabad and a two-day visit to Pakistan by the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Meng Jianzhou. Both of these developments come in the midst of growing concern among U.S. officials about the problem of ISI (Pakistani intelligence) support for a militant group known as the Haqqani Network, which has bases in Pakistan and conducts operations against American and Indian targets in Afghanistan.
For example, the Haqqani Network is widely suspected of being behind the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008, and more recently cell phone trails have established that members of the organization were in contact with Pakistani intelligence before and during the assault on the U.S. embassy in the Afghan capital this month.
Pakistan’s response, however, has been to deny any links between the ISI and Haqqani Network, while accusing the United States of creating the group in the first place. In fact, Jalaluddin Haqqani, the godfather of the organization, was already a devotee to jihadist ideology by the mid-1970s, aiming back then to overthrow the government of Mohammed Daoud Khan, who had seized power from King Zahir in 1973 and established an Afghan republic.
Thus, the militants behind the Haqqani Network (including some Chechen, Palestinian and Yemeni fellow fighters) were already active well before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent joint CIA-ISI enterprise of providing support to various mujahideen warriors in their jihad against the Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s.
Although the leadership of the Pakistan Army is now firmly refusing to take any action against the Haqqani Network in the form of a military offensive in North Waziristan, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik has vowed to attack and pursue Muslim Uighur militants who operate in China’s western province of Xinjiang but take refuge and undergo training in Pakistan’s border areas with Afghanistan (often in cooperation with al-Qa’ida and other Islamist militant groups that have firm footholds in Pakistan). As Malik himself put it, “We will strike very hard against them [the Uighur militants]. Anybody who is the enemy of China is the enemy of Pakistan.”
Strengthening ties extend to the realm of arms deals, and now even entail the deployment of Chinese troops in Pakistani territory. For example, in May, China agreed to provide 50 new JF-17 Thunder multi-role fighter planes to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) “immediately” (a deal had been signed earlier, but during the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani’s visit to China discussion was also raised over the possibility of further Chinese supplies to the PAF of J-20 Stealth and Xiaolong multi-purpose light fighter aircraft). It would appear that as Pakistan increases its military cooperation with China, the country is distancing itself from American military support and aid. Indeed, it is expected that the presence of U.S. military personnel in Pakistan will be halved.
As for the stationing of Chinese troops in Pakistan, it is estimated that there are currently around 11,000 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army in Pakistan’s northern province of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Pakistani Kashmir, facilitating the opening of branches of Chinese banks and construction of concrete residential houses for these troops. This development should primarily be understood in light of the fact that engineers are working on a railroad that is intended to extend from the port of Gwadar in the southwestern province of Balochistan (a port that will be very important for future Chinese proximity to the Persian Gulf) all the way into western China.
Once Pakistan’s strengthening alliance with China in opposition to what is perceived as a U.S.-India axis is taken into account, the policies of the Pakistani military and intelligence towards the various Islamist militants based or operating in Pakistan become very easy to explain. The inconsistency of refusing to launch an offensive against the Haqqani Network while vowing to hunt down Uighur militants has already been noted. Beijing certainly has no problem with ISI backing of the Haqqani Network: so long as the group harms Indian influence and interests in Afghanistan, so much the better for China. China, after all, feels the need as an ever growing economic power to compete with India for Afghanistan’s vast mineral reserves, having already invested $3 billion in the vast Aynak copper mine.
Now we can also see why the ISI and Pakistan Army safeguard and protect the Taliban Shura and other Islamist militants based or operating in Balochistan (especially in and around the provincial capital of Quetta), for they serve as good proxies against the Baloch nationalist insurgency. The Baloch insurgency not only regards Pakistani rule and the presence of Punjabi settlers as an occupation but also is justifiably outraged at the fact that the indigenous population is largely deprived of income from Balochistan’s massive copper reserves, which are being developed and exploited by China and the Pakistani central government.
Pakistan’s desire to counter India applies to Punjab province as well, where a host of Islamist militant organizations (e.g. Lashkar-e-Taiba) enjoy the patronage of the ISI and the provincial government headed by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
These groups have often provided safe havens for militants returning from Afghanistan (as well as those in the border regions who have been given escape routes and early warnings by the Pakistani security forces during operations as part of a double game to win American financial support), allowing many Islamist militants to set up their own seminaries in south Punjab. The predictable result of all this has of course been the increasing destabilization of Punjab itself, giving rise to a phenomenon known as the “Punjabi Taliban” that has bombed Sufi shrines, inter alia.
The emerging picture is clearly one of a Sino-Pakistani partnership aligned against what is seen as a U.S.-India axis designed to limit Pakistan’s assertion of its interests in Afghanistan, Kashmir and parts of India on account of an expansionist policy known as “strategic depth,” which has always been espoused by the Pakistani military and intelligence and is rooted in Pakistan’s perception of its identity as an Islamic state. These developments could well lead to what some analysts have termed a “looming superpower clash” between the United States and China over Afghanistan and the wider regon, triggered by Pakistan.
About the Author
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University. His website is http://www.aymennjawad.org.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
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Michael Tomlinson| 10.4.11 @ 7:04AM
One more foreign policy "success" for Barack Hussein Obama the man who wishes he was a dictator like China's.
Ben Dor A.| 10.4.11 @ 7:21AM
Another slap in the face to US Foreign and Defense policies in the ME since 1948.
It is high time for the US Administrations to realize who their friends are.
axbucxdu| 10.4.11 @ 11:06PM
We have no friends. It's long past time that we recognize that and act accordingly.
Melvin| 10.4.11 @ 7:23AM
Great, Obama is a cross between a Black Neville Chamberlain, and Robert Mugabe.
Timothy L. Pennell| 10.4.11 @ 8:29AM
No. That's not who he is.
He's the guy on Battlestar Galactica. He's the Human, who betrays his own kind. Luring them in to an Ambush, by their Robotic Enemies, for reasons known, only to him. For the Benefit of HIS goals. He is FAR WORSE than Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain LOVED England.
Obama only has eyes for Obama.
P. Arthurson| 10.4.11 @ 7:51AM
Does anyone know what US objectives in the area actually are?
Timothy L. Pennell| 10.4.11 @ 8:14AM
You mean, right now?
That's easy. Apologizing, and Borrowing Money. Everybody knows that.
ConantheContrarian| 10.4.11 @ 9:06AM
If Pakistan be the enemy, then why would we continue to give them aid. Who in Congress, who in the administration continue to sign off on foreign aid? I just don't get it. The Pakis have show their duplicity in the bin Laden affair. Withdraw all aid, and arrange for accidents for the people who were hiding bin Laden from us. Oh, and let's get out of Afghanistan NOW. I really don't care what happens to them.
John786| 10.4.11 @ 10:15AM
Another idiotic article. America is projecting force thousands of miles from its homeland in what it believes are in its interest. But for some reason it does not want to accept that other countries may also have interest in their own region. America will hopefully move on from Afghanistan in the near future. Pakistan does not have this option. India has an active support for seperatist movements in Pakistan and continues to defy international law in kashmir. China is a vital ally for Pakistan as a counterwait against a belligerent India. Notwithstanding all this I'm very strongly in favour of America cutting all & every aid kind to Pakistan. I would strongly urge all of you to contact your elected representative accordingly. 95% of pakistans problems emanate from America.
TrueBlue| 10.4.11 @ 2:19PM
No, 95% of Pakistan's problems emanate from Pakistan. The fact they have a corrupt power hungry government is the problem. Well, that and the fact that the country isn't really a country, it's a collection of tribes forced to live together originally to fight invaders, but now held together by a military regime... kind of like Iraq really.
Honestly I'm all for leaving, and withdrawing any support (same as any other country that obviously hates/lies to us on a regular basis) but if you think things will get better when we're out of the region you're fooling yourself. It'll just turn into another Libya, assuming China doesn't exert further influence on them anyway, which is the more likely outcome.
Roy| 10.5.11 @ 2:58AM
"[Pakistan] isn't really a country, it's a collection of tribes forced to live together originally to fight invaders, but now held together by a military regime"
Huh? Got any support for this position?
John786| 10.4.11 @ 10:18AM
Another idiotic article. America is projecting force thousands of miles from its homeland in what it believes are in its interest. But for some reason it does not want to accept that other countries may also have interest in their own region. America will hopefully move on from Afghanistan in the near future. Pakistan does not have this option. India has an active support for seperatist movements in Pakistan and continues to defy international law in kashmir. China is a vital ally for Pakistan as a counterwait against a belligerent India. Notwithstanding all this I'm very strongly in favour of America cutting all & every aid kind to Pakistan. I would strongly urge all of you to contact your elected representative accordingly. 95% of pakistans problems emanate from America.
Louis Jenkins| 10.4.11 @ 11:04AM
If Pakistan wants the JF-17 and J-20 fighters then so be it. Time to cull back the foreign aid to the goat herders. The USA funds every little pie hole dictator that pops up. Last week a female dignitary on the evening news stated that the people of Pakistan are in favor of US aid, well, let them overthrow their government and prove it.
loulou| 10.4.11 @ 11:24AM
OK, so now can we stop borrowing money from China to give to Pakistan?
Intelligent Design| 10.4.11 @ 11:31AM
I think China's main aim is to make India nervous.
Michael K| 10.4.11 @ 11:32AM
The PRC and Pakistan have been buddies from day one. Their common enemy was and is India.
rendite| 10.4.11 @ 12:23PM
So is there a common nuke weapons policy between the Chinese and the Pakistanis?
Simultaneously: Do the Chinese have any plans whatsoever to safeguard Pakistan nuke weapons from getting into the control of hardline jihadists?
Also: I count (at least) 3 massive earthquakes since 2005 and the flood earlier this year where we brought in massive amounts of U.S. aid, using once more lots of military lift and personnel to do this. These were major operations over many weeks.
Do the Chinese also step in massively on these almost annual Pakistani crises?
shipley130| 10.4.11 @ 2:47PM
Go ahead, Pakistan, ally yourself with a non-religious sugar daddy.
Quartermaster| 10.4.11 @ 3:59PM
Without us the Paks would be far worse off and they know it. They use the Chinks in an attempt to pressure us and play both ends against the middle. Time to exit and tell them to pound sand.
Dave| 10.4.11 @ 4:47PM
As predicted.
POST American| 10.4.11 @ 11:11PM
-----------------------GLOBALIST-----------------------
-----------------------EUGENIST------------------------
-----------------------RED CHINA-----------------------
-----------WORLD SELLOUT and TREASON--------
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aamir | 10.10.11 @ 8:32AM
first of all regards to all
Pakistan is country not a bunch of tribes people living in pakistan love pakistan, like most of you do. America created a fake of 9/11 to attack Afghanistan, they are bombing them since 11 yaers now. for sure they will retaliate they are fighting for thier freedom from AMERICA, america cant do nay thing in afganistan without pakistan, they are having peace talks with talibans but ask pakistan to carry out military action how editic is this. every country has a right to protect thier intrest so does pakistan. we have lost more than 35000 lifes in this so called freedom war, which more than comnined loss of all NATO nations. we are being provided add not because US like us it because it is in thier interest. i would urge pakistani leaders not to tak enay aid from US.