If China is, indeed, talking to Baloch separatists — this should not come as too much of a surprise to anyone. Not when its $60 billion Economic Corridor is at stake. After all, of late Beijing has been proactive in Africa and Asia; particularly in our own region. But it was back in 2012 that more than a few Washington think tankers were talking of how China was effectively ‘buying into’ Afghanistan by investing in its vast mineral wealth. At the time, the US contention was that Beijing was ‘free-riding’ on multilateral efforts to stabilise the quagmire of its own making. In other words, not only had the latter failed to send any troops under the ISAF banner — there were reports that it was paying off the Taliban to protect from sabotage its vast infrastructure projects; a deal that Washington itself was not averse to sealing with various warlords. And while we support the right to self-determination across the board — we still have concerns over the lack of transparency regarding purported talks with those whom the Centre considers anti-state actors that are said to have been carrying out violent attacks for the past so many years. Yet if we are to believe that the government knows not the details of such security discussions but is happy for a negotiated peace to be delivered — then maybe the time has come to revisit the official status of the insurgents. For this is not a conundrum that will go away anytime soon. Not if Chinese troops are eventually stationed here in Pakistan; which may or may not be in the offing given that Beijing is all set to establish a military base in this country. Indeed, the state may find itself confronted with a situation whereby foreign forces are collaborating with outlawed groups. And then, of course, there is the not un-small matter of payback going beyond monetary compensation to extend to banking on outside interference to have demands met. Thus we urge Parliament to take up this issue at the earliest. For if these reports are indeed accurate — it simply underscores how the usual suspects insist upon undermining the country’s faltering democracy. At the very least, our lawmakers must answer what they did or did not know. And as we issue this call to decisive action we would request restraint from all those who have taken it upon themselves to try and indirectly gag the media by pushing a certain agenda which aggressively cautions against questioning any aspect of CPEC on the grounds that China is our only true friend. For such censorship can never be in the national interest. Moreover, given that Beijing is well on its way to stealing the American crown of hegemony — Pakistan would do well to use this opportunity to see how the next global superpower deals with its allies. Yes, it seems almost certain that this century will be a Chinese one. But this doesn’t mean that countries such as our have to simply lie back and think of Beijing. * Published in Daily Times, February 20th 2018.