Bilal Khan (Quwa)
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If it had just been India, then Beijing would have found a way to contain it (as it had for the past 60+ years) diplomatically. However, India's adversarial tones today are being driven in concert with US interests, which actively aim to contain China.All this time India kept crying the "wolf" of two front war. Now it's looking more and more like a possible reality because of Indian aggression and hegemonic designs.
China now has to see India in that light, which means that defence ties with Pakistan are of even greater importance. The U.S. to be careful as well, lest its "do more" message for COIN in FATA be construed by Pakistan's leadership as a mulligan for India (freeing India to only focus on China and not China-Pakistan).
For China, a major solution would be for Pakistan to basically thin its COIN presence to a force that is suitable exclusively for Pakistani interests (i.e. not the U.S. in Afghanistan) and rebuild its conventional force orientation for India. However, China will never interfere with Pakistan's political processes or power dynamics (non-interference is one of Beijing's core values).
It'll be up to Pakistani leaders to ultimately decide, and that will mean closing a few bridges with the U.S. Never an easy or straightforward decision, even for the best of leaders.
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