President Asif Zardari and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to further deepen strategic cooperation across key areas, including economy, investment, and regional connectivity.
Both sides also emphasized the need to expedite the implementation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects during a meeting held on the sidelines of the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Islamabad. Since establishing diplomatic ties in 1951, China and Pakistan have enjoyed a close and mutually beneficial relationship. Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1950 and remained a steadfast ally during Beijing’s period of international isolation in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Similarly, China has long provided Pakistan with major military, technical, and economic assistance, including the transfer of sensitive nuclear technology and equipment. Some experts predict growing relations between the U.S. and rival India will ultimately prompt Pakistan to push for even closer ties with its longtime strategic security partner. Others say increased concern within China about Pakistan-based insurgency groups might cause Beijing to proceed in a more cautious manner.
Regardless of the future, it is undeniable that China and Pakistan have traditionally valued one another as a strategic hedge against India. “For China, Pakistan is a low-cost secondary deterrent to India,” former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani said in in 2006, while a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “For Pakistan,” he said, “China is a high-value guarantor of security against India.” Mutual enmity between India and Pakistan dates to Partition in August 1947, when Britain relinquished its claim over the Indian subcontinent and divided its former colony into two states. Since then, Pakistan and India have fought three wars and a number of low-level conflicts. Tensions remain high over the disputed territory of Kashmir with periodic military posturing on both sides of the border.
India has long been perturbed by China’s military aid to Pakistan. K. Alan Kronstadt, a specialist in South Asian affairs at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, writes that observers in India see Chinese support for Pakistan as “a key aspect of Beijing’s perceived policy of ’encirclement’ or constraint of India as a means of preventing or delaying New Delhi’s ability to challenge Beijing’s region-wide influence.” China and India fought a border war in 1962, and both still claim the other is occupying large portions of their territory. John W. Garver, professor of international relations at the Georgia Institute of Technology says: “Both China and India incurred heavy costs on their economic development, and both sides shifted their policy over time to become more accommodating to growth.”
China’s role as a major arms supplier for Pakistan began in the 1960s and included assistance in building a number of arms factories in Pakistan and supplying complete weapons systems. “Until about 1990,” write South Asia experts Elizabeth G. M. Parker and Teresita C. Schaffer in a July 2008 CSIS newsletter, “Beijing clearly sought to build up Pakistan to keep India off balance.” After the 1990 imposition of U.S. sanctions on Pakistan, China became the country’s leading arms supplier. Collaboration now includes personnel training, joint military exercises, intelligence sharing, and counterterrorism efforts. While the relationship is not quite balanced, it has been critically important to Pakistan. “Pakistan needs China more than China needs Pakistan,” says Huang Jing, a China expert at the National University of Singapore.
Over the years, frequent exchanges of high-level visits and contacts between the two countries have resulted in a number of bilateral trade agreements and investment commitments. Trade relations began shortly after the establishment of diplomatic ties in the early 1950s, and the two countries signed their first formal trade agreement in 1963. A comprehensive free trade agreement was signed in 2008, giving each country unprecedented market access to the other.
The two countries have also cooperated on a variety of large-scale infrastructure projects in Pakistan, including highways, gold and copper mines, major electricity complexes and power plants, and numerous nuclear power projects. With roughly 10,000 Chinese workers engaged in 120 projects in Pakistan, total Chinese investment–which includes heavy engineering, power generation, mining, and telecommunications—was valued at $65 billion in 2022.
One of the most significant joint development projects of recent years is the major port complex at the naval base of Gwadar, located in Balochistan province. The complex, inaugurated in December 2008 and now fully operational, provides a deep-sea port, warehouses, and industrial facilities for more than twenty countries. China provided much of the technical assistance and 80 percent of the funds for the construction of the port. In return for providing most of the labor and capital for the project, China gains strategic access to the Persian Gulf: the port is just 180 nautical miles from the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of all globally traded oil is shipped. This enables China to diversify and secure its crude oil import routes and provides the landlocked and oil and natural gas-rich Xinjiang Province with access to the Arabian Sea.
The Pak-China relationship is truly win-win for both sides. Stumbling blocks in the form of terrorism and various external factors can dent these ties, but with both countries dedicated to supporting each other, are unlikely to ever sever them.