United Press International,
WASHINGTON: Pakistani president Gen. Pervez Musharraf signed 13 Chinese-Pakistani agreements and a memorandum of understanding, on energy, defense, trade, and communications during a visit to Beijing last month.
These agreements have implications beyond their strictly economic aspects. They signify an upgrading of Beijing and Islamabad's long-standing strategic partnership and suggest that China's improved relations with India will not mean the end of Beijing's pro-Pakistan stance in South Asia.
Ever since Pakistan's 1998 test of nuclear weaponry the United States has been reluctant to lift its ban on sales of most defense technology items to Islamabad. Beijing has moved quickly to replace Washington as Pakistan's primary military and nuclear technology supplier, especially in the field of main battle tanks and missile technology.
Taking advantage of the recent increase in Pakistan's military spending, which will rise to US$3.74 billion in 2006, China is supplying Pakistan's Navy with four F-22P frigates, jointly producing the JF-17 fighter aircraft, and working together on the K-8 trainer. In the nuclear sector — officially designated for civilian purposes only — Beijing has already helped Islamabad to set up a nuclear power plant, and the two countries recently started work on a second in eastern Pakistan. When Pakistan attracted the wrath of many nations, including the United States, by testing its own nuclear weapon in 1998, China did not overtly condemn its neighbor.
As to trade and economic cooperation, a five-year joint program has been launched to boost economic ties and promote free trade. Chinese-Pakistani bilateral trade is flourishing, having risen from $3.06 billion in 2004 to $4.25 billion in 2005. There are plans to increase overall volume to $8 billion by 2008.
Beijing also agreed to provide Pakistan with $300 million in loans to buy Chinese goods, and has offered further assistance to help rebuild the important Karakoram Highway, which was severely damaged in the huge earthquake that struck Pakistan last year.
However the atmosphere between China and Pakistan has been sullied due to a string of recent deadly killings of Chinese technical and business personnel working in Pakistan. In May 2004, a car bomb killed three and injured nine of the 300 Chinese technicians working at the port of Gwadar near Karachi. Then in October 2004, two Chinese technicians working on the Gomal Zam Dam project were kidnapped. Most recently, on February 15 of this year, three Chinese engineers were killed in a tribal area south of Quetta. President Musharraf has said his government will do everything it can to bring the murderers of the three Chinese engineers to justice and beef up business security in Pakistan.
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