If your country is desperate to stave off economic collapse, there is probably no better place to visit, and no better friend to have, than China right now. With $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, China is sheltered from the worst of the financial storm, so much so that many are looking at it to play a part in hauling the global economy into calmer waters.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari begins a trip to China on Tuesday on what is being billed as his first official visit abroad – his earlier trip to the United States has been presented as one to attend the U.N. General Assembly.
Pakistan has long seen China as its most reliable friend, in contrast to the United States, whose support has waxed and waned in line with U.S. strategic interests in the region. And China in turn has long been content to provide quiet support, avoiding the brashness of the United States while building a relationship with an ally that could be used as a counterweight to India. So there is nothing unusual about a Pakistani leader making China his first choice for a bilateral trip.
What is unusual is the context. Because of the financial crisis, China’s economic clout has soared relative to the United States. It has recently begun to flex its economic muscles to exercise political power, as this Financial Times story about China using its forex reserves to convince Costa Rica to sever ties with Taiwan suggests.
On its part, Pakistan is keen to show its independence from the United States. With tensions running high over U.S. missile strikes and one reported ground raid by U.S. troops across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistani territory, no Pakistani leader right now can afford to be seen as too pro-American. Pakistan Army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, has already made a trip to China to discuss defence cooperation. And though Pakistan’s economy may be teetering on the brink of collapse, Zardari has in the past ruled out seeking a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund – identified by public opinion in Pakistan as being too much of an “American” institution.
And that makes China’s role as a potential saviour all the more important. The question that needs to be asked is whether China, with its new found economic power, will extract a higher price for its support than it has done in the past, and how far Zardari will go to pay for that support. In an interview with Xinhua, Zardari said he had a long-term economic cooperation plan, and will “bring my own concept to China”.
China has its own reasons to want to ensure the stability of Pakistan, not just because of its unspoken rivalry with India, but also because it cannot afford to let Islamist militancy seep from Pakistan into neighbouring Xinjiang, the restive far-western region where in August it said it faced a ”life and death struggle” against terrorism, following a series of attacks blamed on Muslim separatists.
So will Zardari’s visit to China intensify a relationship that will maintain global economic stability by helping to prevent another national economy from sliding off the edge, while bolstering the battle against Islamist militancy? Or are there hints in there of a Faustian pact? The devil, as usual, will be in the details.
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those people cursing China should really come to China to see, to feel. i am pround to be a Chinese.
- Posted by maomaoWhy you cnn will punish the comments that is offensive to you evil west slavers? why you cnn dont punish the comments that is offensive to China and Pakistan? Your house rulers prove there is no speech freedom in west.Do not try to fool the whole world. You west is the root destroying this earth!
- Posted by anti-usaMichael Low .
- Posted by cjInvesting china for what . The money does not reach them . china is going to collaps like russia. one day if all chinese think they dont want this stupid chinees communist . then that would be chinas end. U cannot put pressure and hold. u have realease . we all hope one day
chinese people will be free to talk and do what they want .
What happens to Pakis if China does same thing as USA after 20 years. Do they Jihad againest Chinees . China provocing or using Pakis to destabilize india . but they
- Posted by cjdont know that pakis cannot mess with India any more .
Can Pakistan ever stand up on it’s leg or it will keep running from one master to another master? It will only get used up and discarded by all. All countries look for their own interest and use other countries to further their own ambitions.
- Posted by A friend of PakProblem with China is it can’t stand alone and say anything moral. It always prefers to shout and shoot behind other’s shoulders. China needs someone else do the cheerleadig for it. So it befriends some desperate lonely countries, sells arms/craps to them, traps them in a debt cycle and then uses them every possible way. These countries end up as failed states and survive on donations and food stamps. Look at N Korea, Sudan, Burma.
Is Pakistan going to fall in this trap???
Wake up Pakistan .. stand up!!
China has the body of an elephant and brain of a rat.
1. One Chinese president offered 1 million Chinese women as debt payment to a foreign country. (Source: BBC)
2. During Beijing Olymics,
(a) Chinese Govt kicked out Chinese citizens from Beijing so that foreigners don’t see dirty Chinese faces.
(b) Faked the voice and face of 8 year old girls to hide someone they consider ugly and fooled the world.
(c) Faked the fireworks to fool the world.
3. Looting natural resources, minerals from Africa, Burma and selling arms in return to immoral dictators. Cheap and toxic Chinese goods killed the local industry in Africa. Now Africans can’t compete with Chinese in Africa and are either getting killed or emigrating to Europe.
4. Everything in China is fake or cover up or toxic: bird flu, baby food, pet food, earthquake area school construction, toxic disposals to rivers, toxic plastic ingredients and so on.
5. China has the biggest army but it is scared of the peaceful Tibetan monks.
Need I say more?? ..:))
- Posted by AdamIf Pakistan wants an international nuclear deal, it must come clean on it’s past, own up mistakes and responsibility, make A Q Khan available for IAEA questioning and wait for 5-6 years before Khan episode fades away. IAEA is the only authority who approves such deals. Making any shady secretive bilateral deal with China will put more questions and will not be internationally acceptable. It will easily kill the prospects of any respectable international deal. China itself buys nuke fuel and can’t divert. China doesn’t have latest nuke power technology or safety measures. Pakistan will be hostage to Chinese deal and slavery forever. Look what’s happening to N Korea and Iran!!!
- Posted by WatsonIf Pakistan prefers to be someone’s slave, nobody can stop them. They preferred to be US slave for 30 years and now US is paying back. They will be China’s slave and China will flood Pakistan with cheap poisonous crap, kill local industry, flood cheap Chinese labor and will suck all Pakistan’s natural resources in return. Pakistanis will be begging Chinese for jobs. This is happening right now in Africa (source: BBC) and will happen in Pakistan if very soon. Pakistan’s resources are for Pakistanis, NOT Chinese!!!
- Posted by EdmondHi,
Nice discussion going on!!
As Indians, it is of prime importance for us that Pakistan prospers…for many reasons. The exploiters of Pakistan both US earlier and in future China would leave Pakistan the moment their interests cease to exist.
However, I feel it is important to align itself with China right now than considering the “too-good-to-be-true” solution of merging economic and other interests with India. This is because Pakistan is on the brink of war from all corners. That is, a civil war has already begun within due to the financial and economic crisis. Militancy is not helping it much. India also shares the militancy problem, however, in Pakistan it has become a commonplace phenomenon. Added to this is the tense condition prevailing on the Afghan-pak border between Pak and NATo forces regarding the FATA terrain.
As opportunistic the US is, it would not hesitate to attack Pakistan in search of AlQaeda even without an evidence that they actually are hiding there. I mean thats wat they did in Iraq. Now if Pak seeks help from India, although India would be eager to help, it would be a strategic error in the wake of war with US. India would not support war due to its non-aligned policy and more so if it is with the US in today’s scenario.
Hence, strategically, it makes sense for Pakistan to seek support from China. This is only as far as the external war and the economic crisis is concerned. But the internal law and order problem in Pakistan has to be addressed first by pakistan and by Pakistan themselves as that is causing more damage than anything else. If a man’s life is safe then will he think of a job and a luxurious life.
As far as exploitation is concerned, whoever has power will continue to exploit the powerless. Earlier it was British, then it was USSR and USA, then it was only USA and now it will be China and later it might be China and Russia again. That’s the way it goes may be.
Sorry if I hurt anyone.
- Posted by GautamNothing wrong in Pakistan and China friendship. Every country has the right to choose her friends. Unless a nation helps herself, no one is going to come to her rescue. Its just an illusion that China or USA or anyone will help any nation. Why should China give $$s to Pakistan when there are millions of poor Chinese wanting the same $$s. Problem of Pakistan is the very ideology on which she was created. Unless Pakistanis come out of that mindset, there is no salvation. Pakistanis have to learn how to look at world through the non-Islamic eyes. I fail to understand why Muslims want to live only in Islamic Republics and not with non-Islamic people? India has no problem with Pakistan other than this two nation theory on which Pakistan was created. If one follows this ideology, every country where Muslims live, has to be divided to make place for Muslims. No country on Earth will accept this in modern times.
- Posted by Rajendra KumarLong Live PAK-China Friendship. Nucluear deal should be done years ago but i think this is the right time.
- Posted by WaqarYes, we can safely say that in such times… china is the most favourable country now for investing into! I suggest those with lots of cash now to invest in China currency… although it has appreciated between 10 - 20% against alot of countries(including Australia, Europe and Britain) over the last one month, it still has at least room for upward movement of 10- 20% before the end of this year!
Good Luck!
- Posted by Michael LowWell it has always been like this that when ever Pakistan is in danger it looks towards its friends for help and no doubt pak china friendship has always been a great one and InshALLAH in the future as well we would be fighting our common enemoes together… as Holy Prophet said .. seek knowledge even if u have to go to china…. and knowledge is the biggest power now a days…. so we r seeking power by going to china.. hope u people understand
- Posted by KashifZeeshan, you dream needs one correction !
The next centres of power would be China, Russia and Pakistan (not Canada)… Rest fits in well this Pakistani Dream
- Posted by Atszeeshan, dream on my boy dream on…..
- Posted by naveen[...] Pakistan and the financial crisis China, Pakistan and the financial crisis October 13th, 2008 If your country is desperate to stave off economic collapse, there is probably [...]
- Posted by China, Pakistan and the financial crisis - Pakistan Defence ForumExcuse me Eric, Dan, etc. The problem is that China knows every up has a down and for every down there is an up. It knows the value of helping countries in crisis, so when it is helping Pakistan, it is helping itself to make its own future secure. Nature has given everything a balance. Its us humans who have always tried to destroy it. For the point about which Dan had written “Not fair!! Everyone, every country should live free, with dignity, with self-respect, as equals and and NOT be trapped or exploited for money.” I would just ask how much help had Americans given to any country without their interests?????? Its America that is using most of the countries as puppets, not China. Its America which has waged nearly all the wars that exitst today either directly or indirectly. China is the most responsible country of all. We havent ever heard in the past 20-30 years that China is in any kind of war. This country has the most respectable foreign plicy of their own and not dictated by Americans.
- Posted by TalhaThe next centers of power would be China, Russia and Canada as we see the decline of the “American Empire” has already begun. The recent economic meltdown will probably bring this giant to its knees. US debt will go up into trillions of dollars while China already has 2 trillion dollars as Foreign Exhchange Reserves. After some time, it would just not be possible for US to further finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and it will have to pull out. US will end up in bankruptcy and probably disintegrate into smaller countries just like the Sovet Union did at one time. Pakistan and China have always been great friends and they will get more close to counter US-India-Israel “axis of evil”. Probably Russia will also join hands with China, Venezuella, Pakistan etc. US is already losing clout in Central Asia and Middle East and those regions are getting closer to the Asian Block. Eventually World Bank and IMF will collapse too bringing an end to the US world order. Israel which in the first place was an impractical country to be made in the center of Middle East will not be able to sustain itself.I hope there is no bloodshed though. Taiwan will merge with China and probably Kashmeer will break away from India. United States itself is responsible for the mess it has gotten into. It never showed respect for human life and dignity and probably this is the reason for the humiliation it is facing right now.
- Posted by zeeshanALL MUST READ THIS
- Posted by Sameera Bluchhttp://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/ display/15695/index.php
CHINESE ACTIVITY IN BALOCHISTAN
http://www.saag.org/common/uploaded_file s/paper259.html
- Posted by Kuldeep