KARACHI: This is with reference to Tanya Malik’s article “Stronger than steel?” (February 28). It is astonishing that a person pursuing studies in Global Affairs in an American university should be so ignorant of the basic principles governing relations among sovereign states. She speaks of China’s “notorious” rise. I don’t see how a rise can be notorious. Every country must develop. If India has developed, or if Turkey and Singapore have developed, can their rise be called notorious, too? If not, then what is the principle involved?
The writer then wonders why Pakistan’s economic woes continue while China’s economy soars. Since when has it been the responsibility of China or America or Japan to develop Pakistan? Every country must develop itself. Ms Malik is factually wrong about China’s position in the 1971 war. No country in the world supported Pakistan’s crackdown on its own people in East Pakistan. The only country, which did do so was China. She is again factually wrong when she asserts that China was responsible for Pakistan’s “post-Partition military build-up”. The two countries didn’t even have diplomatic relations in the “post-Partition” period, for Pakistan recognised China in 1950. It was America that gave military aid to Pakistan in the 1950s because of its membership of Western military pacts. Chinese military assistance started after the 1965 war.
Ms Malik accuses China of pursuing its own interests. What else should be the aim of a country? Nations make friends and allies with those with whom they share common interests. There is a commonality of interests on a number of issues between Pakistan and China — developing the Gwadar port being only one of them.
Rizwan Yassin
Published in The Express Tribune, March 5th, 2013.
