Hostility with India_ Pakistan leaning towards China
Pakistan is slowly leaning towards China due to its long-standing hostility with India. One of the factors adding to tensions emanating from the India-China border standoff is the China-Pakistan axis. It s widely expected that should conflict break out between New Delhi and Beijing_ Islamabad will open up on India s north-western front in Beijing s aid. For_ Pakistan today is well on its way to becoming China s vassal state. And the anchor of this new China-Pakistan axis is the $62 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). CPEC may be a strategic imperative for China as it potentially solves one problem its leadership is obsessed by the so-called Malacca Dilemma whereby the vast majority of China s energy imports pass through the narrow Malacca Strait_ that could potentially be choked by rival powers. But the exorbitant costs of CPEC works will further increase Pakistan s burgeoning debt_ and perhaps enrich only a few Pakistanis on the take. Allegations of corruption have already surfaced against CPEC Authority s chairman_ Lt Gen Asim Bajwa. The matter has forced President Xi Jinping to postpone his planned trip to Pakistan_ indicating Beijing s unhappiness with Pakistan s military. It s possible that some within the Pakistani army are concerned about China s increasingly overbearing presence in Pakistan (suggestively compared by a Pakistani lawmaker to the East India Company). Pakistan has forced itself into this position because of its hostility towards India. -Source: Times Of India
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