China-Pakistan Relations: A Historical Analysis
Author: Ghulam Ali
Publishers: Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2017 Pgs: 263
China-Pakistan relations are colloquially referred to as “higher than mountains, sweeter than honey and deeper than ocean”. The current and the previous governments have employed jargon excessively to catch public imagination as far as Islamabad’s relations with Beijing are concerned. Academically, however, the contours and dynamics of the bilateral relationship are shaped by multiplicity of factors such as commonality of enemy, geographical proximity and economic growth. Though in numerable scholarly works are available on China’s politics, culture and foreign policy by both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars — there is dearth of such literature on China-Pakistan relations. I am not aware of a book length academic study on the subject by a Pakistani scholar other than the recently published book China-Pakistan relations: A Historical Analysis (2017) by Dr Ghulam Ali. The author is currently based at the prestigious Peking University.
It is quite shocking a revelation that despite the generic hullaballoo of friendship, bilateral ties of the two countries could not receive much academic attention in Pakistan over the years. Same is the fate of bilateral economic relations where the cumulative trade volume is barely US$ 15 billion. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has added a new dimension to bilateral economic relations and, therefore, its impact on bilateral trade is yet to be analysed as work on the corridor is still in progress.
Nevertheless, to comprehend and gauge the impact of CPEC on the China-Pakistan relationship, it is pertinent to investigate the pathology of bilateral relations. Dr Ali’s book, an outcome of his doctoral research, is quite handy as it provides a structured historical, and, at places, strategic analysis of origins, evolution, stabilisation, consolidation and expansion of ties from 1949 till 2017.
To begin with, though China-Pakistan relations originated in the post-WW II period, the evolution in bilateral ties occurred quite late, indeed, in the wake of the 1962 Indo-China war. The war, which Nehru failed to imagine, and which shattered the Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai dream, provided China and Pakistan with a common denominator: India. Since Pakistan and India had already fought a war in 1947-48, the security paradigm prevailed over other considerations in the relationship of the two countries. Little wonder, China and Pakistan concluded a border agreement in 1963, thus, leaving nothing territorial to fight over. However, China continues to have territorial disputes with India. Only lately, the Chinese authorities issued a new map that showed Arunachal Pradesh as Southern Tibet — a part of the autonomous region of Tibet controlled by China.
However, despite land dispute, China-India relations turned on a positive track in the post-Mao period when the second-generation Chinese leadership led by Deng Xiaoping prioritised economic growth and stability and, by default, followed a neutral policy over territorial disputes within the region. Thus, the Kashmir issue that ranked a top propriety in China’s Pakistan policy during the 1960s and 1970s, assumed non-priority from late 1980s onwards, argued Dr Ali. However, China did not do so to ‘please’ India. Rather, it was an outcome of its revised strategic policy that centred on non-military engagement with its immediate neighbours.
With respect to the US-Pakistan relations, the author takes a historical-dependency view of the bilateral relations: whenever the US showed disinterest in Pakistan, the latter went further close to China. The 1990s — when the US withdrew from South Asia after its decade-long war with the Soviet Russia — witnessed stabilisation in China-Pakistan relations. Moreover, according to Dr Ali, China-Pakistan relations went through the ‘renewal’ phase during the 2000s when Pakistan got closer with Beijing due its problematic ties with Washington.
In addition to defence cooperation, China and Pakistan are now emerging as economic partners where the US$ 56 billion CPEC is cited as a case in point by leadership of both the countries. The CPEC points to expansion in China-Pakistan relations and ‘if implanted’ can take the bilateral relations to ‘new heights’, posits the author. The book comprising seven chapters followed by a conclusion and extensive bibliography consisting of primary and secondary sources is an interesting read. It is easy to grasp the material. Students, scholars of the field, policy makers and general readers would find it to be a valuable contribution, amid dearth of literature on the subject by Pakistani scholars.
Last but not the least, by and large, the book projects a positive image of China-Pakistan relations and, factually, this could be the case given multiple ‘factors of durability’ differentiate China’s relations with, for example, India. With the latter, China means business, and US$ 90 billion bilateral trade is an indication of the growing Sino-Indian (economic) relations. Moreover, despite public outcry over, for example, the Lama issue or Southern Tibet, the two states have not ‘fired a single shot’ on the McMahan Line during decades. In addition, under the Belt and Road Initiate (BRI), China under Xi Jinping is busy establishing economic relations with 60 plus countries across Asia, Europe and Africa. Though China-Pakistan relations are termed ‘durable’ and ‘trust-based’ by the author, the way CPEC unfolds, and how China-India relations fare, is to be seen in the years to come. Also is to be seen the fate of the BRI.
In a nutshell, the book has convincingly covered China-Pakistan relations from formation to expansion phase. Nonetheless, the nature and character of expansion — which is CPEC-oriented — will determine the (dis)course of bilateral relationship in the foreseeable future. Hopefully, by then, we will have more books to review.
The writer is Head, Department of Social Sciences, Iqra University, Islamabad. He is DAAD, FDDI and Fulbright Fellow. He tweets @ejazbhatty