The China-Pakistan Axis: Asias New Geopolitics by Andrew Small

Author:Andrew Small
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015-01-30T07:00:00+00:00

EPILOGUE

THE DRAGON MEETS THE LION

Our leaderships have been enthusiastic advocates of comprehensive, meaningful ties, and to this end, have also visited China, often more times than warranted. They have also loved to sign agreements, seeing them as photo ops, but then failed to execute them or occasionally, to even honour the commitments made. Resultantly, the Chinese are disappointed but too polite to say that we lack both the focus and capacity, to the required degree, to bring these projects to fruition. But more than anything, it has been China’s deep misgivings about our less than categorical commitment to confronting the menace of extremism and militancy that continues to raise doubts and misgivings in Beijing.

Tariq Fatemi, 20131

Nawaz Sharif wasn’t going to make the same mistake as his predecessor. Asif Ali Zardari’s decision in 2008 to jet off to Dubai, London and New York before belatedly making China his first “official” overseas trip was never entirely forgiven in Beijing.2 Sharif’s maiden visit, by contrast, was being planned before he had even been sworn into office.3 He had serious business to do there. On 11 May 2013, his party had won an unexpectedly comprehensive victory in the parliamentary elections, the first in Pakistan’s history to take place after a civilian government had completed a full five-year term. Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the long-standing rival party to Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), had been routed, holding on to only a handful of seats outside its traditional base in Sindh.4 There would be no need for the anticipated period of concessions and coalition-building—Sharif ’s comeback from military coup, prison, and forced exile in Saudi Arabia was already complete.5 After years of stagnant growth, his mandate from the Pakistani people was clear: “The economy, the economy, the economy”, as he proclaimed at the PML-N’s victory party.6 Sharif ’s election campaign had been a blizzard of plans to get it functioning again—new motorways, industrial zones, bullet trains and, above all, fixing Pakistan’s chronic energy problems.7 For all these ambitions, there was an obvious place to turn for financing, knowhow and sheer industrial muscle. Yet after years in which the major economic initiatives with China had languished, convincing Beijing that Pakistan was a better investment bet now that the conservative Punjabi industrialists were back in charge would be no easy task.

Sharif and the Chinese had dealt with each other plenty of times before. This was, after all, the third stint as Prime Minister for the man dubbed “the Lion of the Punjab” by his supporters, and Beijing maintained extensive ties with his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, during his years as Chief Minister of their home province. But during the two sides’ previous interactions in office, Nawaz Sharif was an altogether weaker figure. His last official visit to China as premier was a desperate shuttle during the 1999 Kargil fiasco in a fruitless bid for Chinese support, while he fended off acute challenges to his position at home. Those were the final days of a cycle that had seen

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