BUILDING BRIDGES WITH CHINA

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China’s challenge to Soviet leadership of world communism has,
according to Bhutto, brought to the fore a reality: the two communist giants –
China and the Soviet Union – no longer present one solid front to the free world. After
the rift began in the late 1950s when the Soviet Union denounced Stalinism, Bhutto
wrote, a section of Pakistan’s leadership initiated a practical move – to build bridges
with China for ensuring a flow of advantages for Pakistan’s security.
This move, according to Bhutto, proved very useful when viewed in the
context of the march of events across the borders of Pakistan, say, during the last two
decades or so. Bhutto maintained that quite a few forces made desperate attempts to
weaken, if not wipe out, the basis of Sino-Pak friendship in the past. The outcome has
been the birth of areas of greater cooperation and coordination between the people of the
two countries. As Chinese support to Pakistan, according to Bhutto, has already
aroused some other countries to come closer to the homeland of the Pakistanis, it could
prove more useful for us to have China and her people on our side in order to enable
Pakistan and her people to feel secure against any intervention, or interference, by
outsiders.
Pakistan needs Western technology and aid in view of the fact that China
cannot always be in a position to meet Pakistan’s requirements in the economic
and defence fields. Bhutto, who felt upset about America’s wait and watch attitude
towards internal disturbances in Iran, suggested that the people of Pakistan
should not allow their country’s foreign policy to be reorganized to leave a wide space for
the Americans and Russians to meddle in the internal affairs of Pakistan.
I am neither anti-American nor anti-Russian and although I have to see the
United States and the Soviet Union as friends of Pakistan, I have not been reconciled to
the manner in which some circles inside Pakistan have been politicized by agencies
working either for America or for Russia. For a while I was upset, when I learnt that the
United States did not take a more active role in combating Soviet influence in Iran.
Bhutto asked: Was the Carter Administration so preoccupied that it practically
forgot Iran?
In his argument supporting more and more measures to strengthen bonds of
friendship between Pakistan and China in the context of the winds blowing in the
neighbouring countries, Bhutto said that although the need to have close links with
the United States – and as a matter of fact with the rest of the world – had not
become less, the contact with China and her people should be regarded as important
in view of the advantages it has thrown up for Pakistan. What Bhutto ignored is that
once China gained a foothold in Pakistan the people of Pakistan and the Z. A. Bhutto; Notes from death cell. Copyright © Bhutto 17
administration headed by Zia would find it difficult to get rid of the Chinese,
especially form the northern territory of the country.
China found it easy to develop friendly relations with Pakistan following
two important developments: Khrushchev’s declarations of support to India
during 1955-56 proving that Russia’s interest in Asia was no less than China’s,
and the resentment of the Pakistani press and politicians about the Soviet
leader’s statements on the Kashmir ‘issue’ towards the end of 1955. But China
had already begun a calculated attempt to gain a foothold in strategically
situated Hunza, across the frontier region of Ladakh, in 1951 with a view to
fraternizing with the local people. It was also announced then that China had
decided to provide material aid to Pakistan to enable her to improve the
economy of Hunza and its neighbouring areas. Pro-Peking sentiment became
noticeable in Hunza and Nagar for the first time in 1952 when Chinese goods
including silk, green tea, cloth and cameras were sold in the region at throwaway
prices.
Some politicians in Asia may find the history of the two communist giants
a confused torrent of events. Not so the former Prime Minister of Pakistan. He
claimed that as a student of history he had tried to study in depth China and the
Soviet Union, before he reached the conclusion that Pakistan would profit greatly
from her friendship with China.
True, the people of Pakistan cannot afford to live and act and react in isolation
and underrate the importance of areas of amity and accord with the rest of the world. But
the Pakistanis have to judge things on their merit, without ignoring the geographical
factors; and to understand that, in politics, the adage – the nearer the church the farther
from god – cannot sound and look practical.
Bhutto’s efforts at closer friendship and greater cooperation between
Pakistan and China began after he sought an answer to the key questions: What
are the operative motivations of the Soviet leadership? What are the prospects of
Russian communist success or failure in terms of the leadership’s objectives?
Bhutto has not revealed his answers to these questions. Nor has he given any
idea of the situation that forced him to intensify measures seeking a network of ties
with China.
As a student of history, as Bhutto called himself, he studied the history of
the struggle for power in China (1949-1954), the ideology of Chinese society, the
stages of Chinese development, the top leadership, the military, the general
setting, changes in foreign economic relations; he had given thought to the future
of Chinese communism. Significantly, he did not, in his diary, set out to raise
such questions as: What are the operative motivations of the Chinese communist Z. A. Bhutto; Notes from death cell. Copyright © Bhutto 18
regime? What are its current intentions regarding the external world? What
problems does it confront in achieving its purpose