Pak China Friendship

In early 1960s, the regional and sphericisticistic environment played an important role in bringing just about an upswing in Pakistan- china dealings. mainland chinaware, which was under the strong pressure of the West led by the US in those days of the Cold War as shown by the establishment of SEATO and had fought a war with India because of their territorial dispute, needed fri removes to wipeout its international isolation and return India in southward Asia. Pakistan because of its strained dealing with India was in search of friends in its neighbourhood to neutralise, to about extent, Indias federal agency superiority. mainland china met the demands of Pakistans strategical compulsions.Pakistans realisation of the strategic importance of its companionship with China increase as it became acutely aware of the unreliability of the westbound support in any conflict with India. The 1965 Pakistan-India war confirmed these apprehensions. The spherical strategic environ ment underwent a dramatic change in the seventies with the rapprochement between the US and China, in which Pakistan had played an important role, to counter the perceived tri bute threat posed by the Soviet marrow to both Washington and Beijing. Thus, the Western impediment to the strengthening of Pakistan-China relations was removed.In fact, undermentioned 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 another dramatic change of the global strategic scenario. For about a ecstasy after the end of the Cold War, the US loomed large on the global scene akin a colossus. No other country matched its enormous army power and stinting strength. There were signs of concern in the 1990s on the give out of China about the emergence of the US as the global hegemon and the unipolarity of the international political system.This period als o witnessed the commencement of the process of the strengthening of US-India relations to contain China and the imposition of the US scotch and multitude sanctions against Pakistan because of its atomic programme. These developments brought Pakistan and China closer together. The result was increased Pakistan-China cooperation in various dramatic arts, 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 issue 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 senesce and rise as a leading global power. The initiation of policies of economic reforms and opening to the outside land in 1979, under Chinas paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, unleashed powe rful forces that accelerated Chinas economic growth to dizzying heights.Consequently, its GDP grew five times between 1979 and 1998 as against the post of fourfold increase. Since 1998, China has recorded growth rates averaging about nine-spot percent per annum, propelling it to the position of the second biggest economy in the world. Chinas GDP during the current year is expected to sacrifice the take care of $9. 2 trillion as against the US gross domestic produce of $16. 3 trillion. In purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, its GDP would reach the figure of $13. 9 trillion during the current year.According to latest projections, China go out overtake the US economy in PPP terms at bottom 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 uncorrupteds with the combined total of its exports and imports gain the amount of $3. 87 trillion as against the $3. 82 trillion for the US. The speedy growth of Chinas economy has also enabled it to increase its soldiers expenditure at a fast 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 actually small proportion of the US annual military expenditure. Such a massive shift in the global balance of power cannot but have far-reaching implications for international politics. The US ability to impose its willing on the rest of the world in the economic field is fast eroding. Correspondingly, the lastingness of its economic sanctions against foreign countries will also decline. It has forced the US to fall its maritime 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 surmount Chinas territorial claims in South China sea by extending political support par ticularly to Vietnam and the Philippines. Above all, from the point of get wind of both Pakistan and China, the US is engaged in close cooperation with India in economic, military and nuclear fields to help get along it up as a major world power of the 21st century with a ensure to containing the expansion of Chinas influence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.The growing 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 gas 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 strate gic point of view, the future prospects of Pakistan-China relations are quite bright. It was against this compass 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 of religion 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 calling 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, pay 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 railroad tie between Pakistan and China, oil and gas pipelines through Pakistan to connect Xinjiang and the rest of China wit h the Strait of Hormuz and West Asia via the land route, and a rapid increase in bilateral trade.However, Pakistan would have to put its own house in order, rank its domestic priorities, energise its private sector, and streamline its procedures to take full utility 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.