Pakistan is increasingly becoming China’s most important partner in Asia
Walking in the streets of Pakistan, locals are eager to greet visitors from China with a friendly nihao (hello) and shy waves from behind curious looks. It’s a sign of the friendship that has been quietly nurtured between the two countries over the past 55 years of diplomatic relations.
The sentiments were echoed by Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, when he told a visiting Chinese media delegation in Islamabad on March 11, that as strategic friends, China and Pakistan have a multifaceted relationship, which is based on the premise of mutual advantages and a sense of sharing.
According to General Jamshed Ayaz Khan, President of the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad, a nationwide opinion poll on “Pakistan’s best friends in the world” was conducted recently, and China came out tops.
Dr. Wang Wei, Director of the Office of South Asian Studies under the China Association for International Friendly Contact, speculated that if a similar opinion poll were to be run in China, the result could well be similar.
According to Wang, who has been studying the relationship between China and South Asian countries for more than 10 years, the two countries have avoided disputes ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1951. The basis of such stable relations is diverse, and includes mutual national interests, common strategic consensus, mutual respect of sovereignty and non-interference, sincerity and support of the peoples. China gives assistance without any conditions and always appreciates the help it receives.
It is a relationship “deeper than the oceans and higher than the mountains,” as described by both President Hu Jintao and President Pervez Musharraf on the latter’s third state visit to Beijing in February.
Historically, Pakistan has also played important roles in establishing diplomatic relations between China and the United States. One example is former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s icebreaking visit to Beijing in 1971, which started from Peshawar, Pakistan.
In its own right, as a big Islamic country with a population of 160 million, as well as being the sole nuclear country in the Islamic world, Pakistan holds an important position among developing countries worldwide as well as in the Islamic world.
China’s energy corridor
LINGUISTIC PIONEERS: Students of the Chinese Department of the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad take a break between classes
Recently Pakistan has called on China to consider its role as an energy and trade corridor between China and the Middle East. President Musharraf first raised this idea and elaborated on it in an exclusive interview with Beijing Review.
He stressed Pakistan’s geographic advantage, which is important to China. Located between South Asia, China and Central Asian republics, Pakistan is a country that cannot be ignored by anyone who wants to interact between these regions.
As a large economy with rapid economic growth, China imports oil from Saudi Arabia and transports the oil on a long route around its east coast. China also trades with Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India. But how China could facilitate all this trade along its lengthy east coast is a problem. Musharraf had the answer.
“China can route through Pakistan. Because of our friendship with China and Central Asian republics, we would like to provide a shortcut route and contribute to all kinds of trade and energy cooperation,” Musharraf stressed.
Pakistan borders China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and has a comparatively convenient and secure transportation network in place.
“Pakistan’s Gwadar Port is capable of serving as China’s important energy transfer station. Oil from Africa and the Middle East will reach the port and go on to China via road, rail or pipelines. This is China’s new energy channel,” said Pan Zhiping, Director of the Central Asian Studies Institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.
For a long time, energy security remains a large headache to China because of the fragile security environment in the Strait of Malacca. More than 80 percent of China’s oil imported from the Middle East and Africa are transported via the strait. But China cannot influence the region, as in the event of conflict breaking out China could face a severe energy supply crisis.
Dr. Wang pointed out that Pakistan’s proposed role, as China’s energy corridor, is a positive and inspiring proposition, which is worth active and serious consideration and assessment.
According to him, China’s efforts at multiplying its sources of strategic energy have encountered more barriers than expected. Against this general backdrop, the prospect of establishing a trade and energy corridor through Pakistan appears all the more important.
Because of its special position to China, an oil pipeline through Pakistan will supply another option other than the Strait of Malacca, thus making Pakistan an important link in China’s energy security strategy.
According to a report submitted by the Xinjiang delegation to the annual session of the 10th National People’s Congress in March, the energy transportation channel via Pakistan is 20,000 km shorter than the route via the Cape of Good hope, with transportation fees reduced by 25 percent and transportation time cut by over one month.
“This will greatly improve China’s capacity of energy importation and ensure China’s energy security,” said Wang.
To China, Pakistan’s role is far beyond the energy corridor. It is also the sea channel connection between China and the Indian Ocean and the land channel connecting China and Iran. Its unique geographical position connecting East Asia and West Asia and joining the Indian Ocean and the hinterland of Asia also supplies a new channel for Chinese enterprises to go global.
Culture and language studies
While Wang is quite optimistic about the future development of bilateral relations, he does have some concerns about the weaker links in bilateral ties.
“Economic cooperation, cultural exchanges and people-to-people contacts are the three main sectors that are less than satisfactory in Sino-Pakistani relations, especially cultural exchanges,” he noted.
An obvious example is that Pakistani students are learning Chinese history from British textbooks. There are very few Chinese cultural or language centers in Pakistan, and Pakistanis who can speak Chinese are very few in number.
The areas of people-to-people contact and exchanges should be strengthened in a significant way, said Wang.
Some universities of the two countries are making efforts to develop cultural exchanges. On April 4, 2005, the Confucius Institute was unveiled in the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) in Islamabad, giving great impetus to the development of Chinese teaching in the university.
“NUML has outstanding advantages in Chinese education in Pakistan and Confucius Institute in Pakistan, the first such institute in a Muslim country. This will strengthen our determination in promoting Chinese teaching in Pakistan and raise our education levels,” President of NUML Dr. Aziz Ahmad Khan told Beijing Review, adding that the institute will mainly be used to publish Chinese newspapers, translate Chinese books and movies.
Of its 23 linguistic departments, the Chinese Department is the second largest, after the English Department. Meanwhile, the university also has 11 non-language related departments such as mass communications, management sciences and international relations. It has more than 8,000 students, including over 700 foreigners. Chinese students are the largest in number among foreign students, totaling 110, proud in the knowledge that their department was the first to be opened after the university was established in 1970.
The university, which initially only admitted students recommended through the army, has, with increasing social demands, gradually opened to the civilian population.
Gao Kai, Dean of the Chinese Department, selected for his post by the Chinese Education Ministry, said the Chinese language is an important part of the university’s courses.
On its teaching staff, the department currently has five teachers from China and six from Pakistan.
NUML has also launched cooperative programs with many Chinese universities such as Peking University, Ningxia University, Wuhan University and Beijing Language and Culture University.
According to Han Luyang, a first year Chinese student in the Mass Communication Department, many Pakistani students are interested in learning Chinese. “I can also practice English here besides my major, mass communications. That is why I choose to study at NUML,” she added.
President Khan is very ambitious about the future development of the university. “We will take concrete measures in China to attract more Chinese students,” he told Beijing Review.
According to him, NUML is planning to establish two campuses in Shanghai and Beijing respectively, teaching English and Urdu with much lower tuition fees than other foreign campuses. He also plans to take full advantage of the Confucius Institute and launch new programs to make the university known to more Chinese students.
NGOs important
Accepting that Sino-Pakistani friendship is characterized by being extremely strong at the political and governmental level, but relatively weak at the cultural and people-to-people level, Wang said NGO exchanges between the two countries may also help to change this phenomenon.
“This is exactly where NGOs have a special and fundamental role to play,” he stressed.
As an NGO, China Association for International Friendly Contact has been collaborating in a very fruitful manner with the Institute of Regional Studies of Pakistan since 1997. Over the past 10 years, the two non-governmental institutions have been exchanging delegations, publications and visiting scholars, jointly holding series of seminars, conducting joint research and facilitating people-to-people contact.
“In order to lift the level of bilateral relations between the two countries, NGOs must shoulder their responsibility,” Wang pointed out.
Besides talking about further cooperation and discussing regional issues of common concern, the main task for NGO collaboration is to bring enterprises in both countries into contact with each other.
In April 2004, bridged by China Association for International Friendly Contact, Beijing Horizon Cultural Communication Co. successfully arranged a weekly exhibition of Chinese education and culture in Pakistan, mainly to promote mutual exchanges in education, language and medical sciences. Meanwhile, it also supplied a shortcut for Pakistani students to study in China.
Official statistics also proved the success of the event. Before the exhibition, fewer than 40 Pakistani students came to China to study through official channels every year. However, in 2005, the number increased by more than 1,000.
“NGOs supply a lot of useful information and resources for us. They provide us with an excellent platform in other countries,” Zhang Wei, General Manager of Beijing Horizon Culture Communication Co., told Beijing Review.