ALI SUKHANVER
A close neighbor can be more helpful than a relative living far away. Pakistan is fortunate enough to have a friend like China as a neighbour but unfortunate to have a neighbour like India who never desires for stability and prosperity of Pakistan. The Pakistanis must be thankful to God for making China its neighbour because the situation could have been much painful for them if there were no China in the region. Pak-China friendship is time -tested and progressing by leaps and bounds every moment. Unluckily this friendship is proving itself much agonizing for those countries which dream of ruling this region on the basis of economic and political exploitation. This close cordial relationship between Pakistan and China has always been a target for such countries. According to the reports the US authorities and other western countries always feel uneasy when they find the exemplary friendship between the two countries going ‘higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the ocean’. That is the reason they always try to create hitches and hurdles between the friendly relations of Pakistan and China. It is also said that the USA is providing nuclear support to India just to counter the increasing influence of China in the region. USA is very well aware of the fact that China is the only country which has a capability of giving tough time to it and this capability shall certainly increase manifold if Pakistan keeps on strengthening its relations with China. That is why there have been so many efforts to create misunderstandings between Pakistan and China. When we cast a look at the past ten years we find a long list of Chinese workers who lost their lives while working at different development projects in Pakistan. The terrorists targeted these Chinese workers simply to alarm and warn the Government of China that it must not send its workers to Pakistan. But in spite of all these threats China never backed out of its determination to make Pakistan strong and prosperous. Be it the Karakorum highway project or the Gawadar Port Plan, the heavy water reactor at Khusab or the manufacturing of JF-17-Thunder Air Crafts , China is always there to support Pakistan. The friendship between the two countries is becoming even stronger as time goes by.
Pak–China relations began in 1950 when Pakistan was among the first countries to recognise the People’s Republic of China. In 1962, the worsening Indo-China relationship turned into a series of hostility. That time Pakistan’ proved itself a very strong well-wisher of China by providing it all type of favour. It would not be an exaggeration if we call 1962, the title page of the story of love and friendship between these two countries. Since then this relationship is becoming stronger and stronger resulting in a variety of agreements of economic, military and technical assistance. The Pak-China friendship is a two-way journey. The whole of the Chinese nation is thankful to the people of Pakistan for their precious support on issues concerning China’s sovereignty, such as Taiwan, and Tibet. The Chinese leadership has always acknowledged the significant role of Pakistan in the early 1970s, which enabled China to break its isolation from the West and the US. Pakistan also helped China become a member for the United Nations. Pakistan has always played an effective role in bringing the Muslim world closer to China.
On the other hand China has always proved itself a very strong support to Pakistan through every time of trial and tribulation. The people of Pakistan can never forget the role of China during Pakistan-Indian tensions in 2008.That was the time when the Chinese leaders very openly promised unlimited financial and military aid to Pakistan. There could have been a very serious type of nuclear war if China were not there to support Pakistan. Above all, China has always provided a very staunch support to the Pakistani stance regarding the Kashmir issue. This affectionate assistance is something very positive for the people of Pakistan but very much discouraging to those who desire and plan for a weaker Pakistan. The countries like India are doing their best to dispel the clouds of vagueness and ambiguity between the two friendly countries. Recently it has been reported that the agents of Raw are trying to invade Xinjiang, the Chinese border province, in the guise of Islamic extremists. The RAW has provided them fake Pakistani identities. These agents are directed to create law and order disturbance in the peaceful land of Xinjiang. Most of these agents are the Hindus by creed but they are so well trained that it would be very much difficult to recognise their actual identity. According to the details some of these agents would intentionally surrender them before the security forces of China after being involved in some act of terrorism. The only purpose behind is to give the Chinese government an impression that Pakistan is trying to promote religious extremism in Xinjiang.
The Xinjiang is situated in the border area of northwest China and occupies an area of 1.6649 million sq km, accounting for one sixth of Chinese territory. It has a land border of 5,600 km bounded by eight countries. It was an important section of the ancient Silk Rout. According to statistics, a few years back, Xinjiang had a population of 19.25 million. Other than the Uighurs, the vast majority of whom is Muslim, there are 47 ethnic groups in Xinjiang including the Hans. This province is considered one of China’s five autonomous regions for ethnic minorities. It is because of the Muslim majority in this area , the western media in collaboration with the Indian think tanks has been yelling at the so-called flourishing Islamic extremism in is Xinjiang for the last many years. A recent proof of the western uneasiness over the situation in Xinjiang is exposed through an article written by Rodger Baker who represents the strategic intelligence analyst group Stratfor. In this article Rodger Baker has discussed different elements and factors giving birth to ‘extremism’ in Xinjiang. The group analyst argues that he sees emerging ‘a Turkistan Islamist movement with links in Central Asia, stretching back to Afghanistan and Pakistan, blending Taliban training, transnational jihadist experiential learning, Hizb al-Tahrir (HT) frameworks and recruiting, and Central Asian ties for support and shelter.’ Rodger calls the extremist movement a ‘different entity’ than what China has faced in the past and comments that the situation is surely ‘not pretty.’
Whatever is the situation in Xinjiang is simply an internal affair of China. The Uighurs is an ethnic group. This group is annoyed over the rapid influx of the Han Chinese settlers. . In 1950 the Uighur tribes were 94% of the whole population of Xinjiang but now they are less than the half. The Uighur tribes have a lot of cultural similarities with the people of Central Asia and are not ready to welcome the Hans Chinese settlers. This conflicting situation is being exploited by India on two grounds; the first one is certainly that India is a tool in the hands of the Western forces that are afraid of strengthening China; secondly India is trying to settle its old scores with China. The recent report regarding the influx of the RAW agents in the guise of Islamic extremists exposes the hidden Indian desires of destabilizing China and portraying Pakistan behind this disturbance. The conflict between the Hans and the Uighurs is neither a separatist movement nor a symbol of extremism; it is simply an internal affair of China. The propaganda portraying this conflict as ‘Extremism’ is simply the artistic work of the forces hostile to the expected supremacy of China in the near future.
The writer is a Pakistan based bilingual analyst on national and international strategic and defense affairs.
China Pakistan alliance is actually an alliance between the Communists and the muslims.
The shrewed Chinese believe, by having the muslims on their side, they can take a short cut to global domination.
The good news is, the Jews, the Christians and the Hindus have recognized this threat, and have come together to crush this evil nexus.
Militarily, let alone the US or Europe, Japan alone can destroy China in a couple of weeks.
Economically, China has a long way to go before it can match the existing powers, while there are other powers emerging to rival China in the future.
The US and Europe switching to the emerging economies like India, Brazil, South Africa, and closing doors on cheap Chinese low tech items would starve the Chinese to death in a few years … !