Pak China Friendship

In early 1960s, the regional and international environment played an important role in bringing rough an upswing in Pakistan- chinaware relations. china, which was at a lower place the strong pressure of the West led by the US in those days of the Cold state of war as shown by the establishment of SEATO and had fought a war with India because of their territorial dispute, needed fri finishs to end its international closing off and counter India in South Asia. Pakistan because of its strained relations with India was in search of friends in its neighbourhood to neutralise, to around extent, Indias index superiority. main knowledge base China met the demands of Pakistans strategic compulsions.Pakistans realisation of the strategic importance of its familiarity with China increased as it became acutely aware of the unreliability of the Western fight in each conflict with India. The 1965 Pakistan-India war confirmed these apprehensions. The global strategic environment underwent a dramatic change in the 1970s with the rapprochement betwixt the US and China, in which Pakistan had played an important role, to counter the perceived pledge threat posed by the Soviet Union to both Washington and capital of Red China. Thus, the Western impediment to the modify of Pakistan-China relations was removed.In fact, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, both Pakistan and the US needed and secured Chinas support to defeat the Soviet occupation through the Afghan jihad. The end of the Cold War in 1991 brought about an other(a) dramatic transformation of the global strategic scenario. For about a ex after the end of the Cold War, the US loomed large on the global scene like a colossus. No other country matched its enormous military power and sparing strength. There were signs of concern in the 1990s on the part of China about the emergence of the US as the global hegemon and the unipolarity of the international political system.This end also witnessed the com mencement of the process of the strengthening of US-India relations to contain China and the imposition of the US economic and military sanctions against Pakistan because of its nuclear programme. These developments brought Pakistan and China adjacentr together. The result was increased Pakistan-China cooperation in various fields, including the field of nuclear technology. Pakistans need for Chinas support and cooperation increased also because of the intensification of the freedom movement in the Indian Occupied Kashmir andthe resultant tensions in Pakistan-India relations. The US unipolar moment soon passed. The first decade of the 21st century witnessed the commencement of a radical reconfiguration of the global strategic scenario driven by Chinas phenomenal economic progress and rise as a leading global power. The fountain of policies of economic reforms and opening to the outside field in 1979, under Chinas paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, unleashed powerful forces that acc elerated Chinas economic harvest to dizzying heights.Consequently, its GDP grew five times between 1979 and 1998 as against the target of fourfold increase. Since 1998, China has recorded growth rates averaging about nine pct per annum, propelling it to the position of the second biggest economy in the world. Chinas GDP during the current course of instruction is expected to reach the figure of $9. 2 trillion as against the US gross domestic crossroad of $16. 3 trillion. In purchasing power parity (PPP) ground, its GDP would reach the figure of $13. 9 trillion during the current year.According to latest projections, China will overtake the US economy in PPP terms within the next few years and in nominal terms some time in the next decade. In 2012, it overtook the US as the worlds biggest trading nation in goods with the unite total of its exports and imports reaching the amount of $3. 87 trillion as against the $3. 82 trillion for the US. The rapid growth of Chinas economy has also enabled it to increase its military expenditure at a ready rate to safeguard its security interests. its annual military expenditure is currently about $106 billion as against $36 billion for India.However, its military expenditure is still a very small proportion of the US annual military expenditure. Such a massive shift in the global balance of power can non but put one over far-reaching implications for international politics. The US ability to impose its will on the rest of the world in the economic field is fast eroding. Correspondingly, the effectiveness of its economic sanctions against foreign countries will also decline. It has compel the US to pivot its naval forces to the Asia-Pacific region where it will deploy 60 percent of its naval assets by 2020.It is strengthening its alliances in Asia with Australia, Japan and South Korea. It is trying to checkmate Chinas territorial claims in South China Sea by extending political support particularly to Vietnam and the P hilippines. Above all, from the point of suck of both Pakistan and China, the US is engaged in close cooperation with India in economic, military and nuclear fields to second build it up as a major world power of the 21st century with a view to containing the expansion of Chinas influence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.The development rivalry between the US and China, and the US efforts to build up India as a bulwark against China, have important strategic implications for Pakistan. The growth in the depth, and the extent of US-India cooperation, is likely to push Pakistan closer to China as a counterweight to Indias possible hegemony in South Asia. US threats of sanctions against Pakistan because of its decision to proceed with the Iran-Pakistan screw up pipeline project will further hasten this process. On the other hand, these developments will deepen Chinas inclination to develop closer relations with Pakistan.Thus, from purely a strategic point of view, the futur e tense prospects of Pakistan-China relations are quite bright. It was against this background that during the fifth round of the Pakistan-China Strategic Dialogue held in Beijing in November 2012, Pakistans Foreign Secretary and the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister agreed that Pakistan and China needed to close ranks to face the extraordinary global and regional challenges. However, there is no room for complacency.Pakistans bilateral trade with China, which was estimated to be $10.6 billion in 2011, was far behind the Indo-China trade of $80 billion. We must, therefore, liquidate special attention to the building up of Pakistan-China relations in economic, commercial and cultural fields, while maintaining close cooperation in political and military fields. Future possibilities of economic and commercial cooperation include a rail cogitate between Pakistan and China, oil and gas pipelines through Pakistan to connect Xinjiang and the rest of China with the Strait of Hormuz and West A sia via the land route, and a rapid increase in bilateral trade.However, Pakistan would have to put its own house in order, reorder its domestic priorities, energise its private sector, and streamline its procedures to take full advantage of the opportunities that beckon us. On the political side, we should be sensitive to Chinas concerns about the activities of the Taliban and other religious extremists in so far as the situation in Xinjiang province of China is concerned. Religious moderation is good not only for our internal political health, but also for our relations with China.