Though solidly allied with the U.S. as a member of SEATO and CENTO, Pakistan is getting ever cozier with Red China. Reason: anger over Western military aid to India, which the Pakistanis fear will not be used by New Delhi against China but to gain control of long-disputed Kashmir. President Ayub Khan argues forcefully that the U.S. is treating nonaligned India better than allied Pakistan, and that the U.S. at least should have extracted concessions on the Kashmir issue from India before offering aid.
No sooner had the Chinese attacked India last year than the usually aloof Red Chinese diplomats scurried from their rambling Karachi embassy compound to court the Pakistanis. In December Ayub readily accepted China's offer to redraw the border between China's Sinkiang region and the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir in a way favorable to Pakistan. A trade agreement followed in January, and recently Pakistan's Foreign Minister hinted broadly that China had agreed to aid Pakistan against possible Indian attack. Last week Pakistan and Communist China signed an airline agreement that could make Pakistan a new and important Chinese outlet to the West—and Peking's only air link with the outside world other than Russia and Burma.
The agreement calls for a route from Karachi and Dacca, in East Pakistan, to Canton, Shanghai and Tokyo. To this end, the Chinese will extend the runways in Shanghai and Canton to handle Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720 jets, which are expected to begin the new run next year. If the Japanese go along as they may if Japan airlines get reciprocal rights, the Sino-Pakistan deal would be not only a political but an economic plum: for years Western airlines, including BOAC, have tried but failed to obtain landing rights in China. In Washington, the State Department termed the air agreement "an unfortunate breach of free world solidarity." And when Under Secretary of State George Ball flies to Pakistan this week for talks with Ayub, he will make clear U.S. concern over Pakistan's dalliance with Red China. Among other things, Ball will object to American-made jets' flying into Communist China and the possibility of the Pakistan Airlines' stocking U.S.-made spare parts and maintenance gear in Shanghai and Canton. Until Pakistan demonstrates its "good faith" to Washington by finding a way out of the air agreement, the U.S. will withhold a $4,300,000 loan to modernize Dacca airport. In his own way, Troubleshooter Ball will have to rephrase the warning of a Western diplomat on the scene who said: "What began as a bit of flirtation could end with Pakistan getting seduced."
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Pakistan: Courtship in the Air - TIME
