I listened to a very good podcast episode today, on Sinica. It was on China’s relations with Pakistan over the years, and particularly around CPEC and the election of Imran Khan. The person being interviewed was uncharacteristically informed about Pakistani politics and how it works (and even pronounced all the names correctly, which is rare amongst scholars and experts). I had not really known the origin and evolution of the story of China-Pakistan friendship and had always assumed it was one-sided, that we believed in it while for China it was just one of many relationships. If this podcast is to be believed, though, it’s far more mutual, emerging out of shared enmity with India to be sure, but also that Pakistan has been a true and reliable (!) Chinese ally. And, what I also didn’t know, that it’s been primarily a security relationship, but CPEC (the speaker felt) was a move to make it something more, to bring some cultural and economic connections, partly to stabilise Pakistan as a security ally. Which made a lot of sense to me and seemed a good reason to, with care, support CPEC. Heaven knows, Pakistan is in need of stability.
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