Security Concerns: A 'Threat to Sino-Pak Friendship'?

By Shannon Tiezzi

China, who supplies a lot of Pakistan’s weapons and foreign investment, has told its troublesome neighbor to fix the situation or see China go from being a helpful to a hostile neighbor.

A commentary in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper expresses concern over a “threat to Sino-Pak friendship.” The article points to terrorism and other security threats as a major issue in China-Pakistan relationship. Of China’s three major concerns regarding the China-Pakistan economic corridor, only one actually has the potential to derail the project entirely: Beijing’s security concerns.

Chinese leaders are concerned about the potential for terrorists trained in Pakistan reentering and conducting attacks in China, but they are just as worried that Pakistan’s government will be unable to guarantee the safety of Chinese workers within Pakistan. In fact, the recent kidnapping of a Chinese tourist in Balochistan seems to have inspired the Dawn commentary.

The article concludes by saying that Chinese analysts hope for Islamabad to take military action against militants in the tribal areas, where the leaders of the anti-China Turkestan Islmaic Party (TIP) are also believed to be based. And Pakistan cannot afford to ignore Chinese pressure on this issue; as the piece notes, “China is investing around $52 billion in major projects in Pakistan.”