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Pakistan realizes it can’t abandon US for China yet.

Again, if looking at her ugly mug, or the title of the piece doesn't turn you off from reading this usual rant of a discredited b****, or writing for an enemy rag, then I dont know what would.
Save some time guys and skip it. Nothing new in it. She is not an objective scholar, but a scorned b**** , a la, Christine unfair, both bending over backwards, pun intended here, to please their hindutva masters.
Stop bitching and tell what you disagree with and why.
 
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In geo-politics no one is your permanent enemy nor permanent friend, it is your overlapping or mutual interests which keep a relationship going.

IF Pakistan safeguards its interests in the equation with US WITHOUT compromising the security of its geography, people and economy then no one should have any objection in continuing a "mutually beneficial" relationship.

Keeping US historical track record in mind and observing the emerging and eventual changes in the global leadership arena, Pakistan IMHO have decided wisely and accordingly to NOT put all eggs in one basket.
 
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The American military training programme, which is set to start again after Covid-19 restrictions ease, has been critical in providing Washington with links inside Pakistan’s armed forces. Restarting the International Military Education and Training (IMET) student exchange programme will at least fill the gap in the absence of a major purpose to enhance military-to-military contact.
Pakistani military officers are (already) currently attending US Army institutions.
 
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Lol why would you post an article written by ayesha sidiqqa. She is Anti Army. From past 5 to 6 years I have made a list of people that are anti army and where their contacts lead. She is one of them.
 
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being in american camp is fatal for Pakistan!
 
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But no one said Pakistan was forsaking its relationship with America for China. America is like Pakistan's Ex-Girlfriend, who despite having a bigger Boyfriend (if you know what I mean) is not satisfied with him, hence she keeps poking into her Ex (Pakistan) who is with his new Girlfriend (China).
 
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Our goal should be to make money and advance Pakistan where it becomes independent of both Iron Brother and America the galactic enforcer of the world. And where we are not blackmailed by some special envoy or IMF,World Bank or some 3rd rate councilman or something appointed in our capital.
But no one said Pakistan was forsaking its relationship with America for China. America is like Pakistan's Ex-Girlfriend, who despite having a bigger Boyfriend (if you know what I mean) is not satisfied with him, hence she keeps poking into her Ex (Pakistan) who is with his new Girlfriend (China).
Too much teen romcoms.
 
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Pakistan realizes it can’t abandon US for China yet. But how far will Bajwa & Co go?
If Indo-Pacific was a room, Pakistan would want to stand inside even if it doesn't get a seat at the table.
Ayesha Siddiqa

AYESHA SIDDIQA 28 May, 2021 12:41 am IST


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Representational image | US and Pakistan naval personnel at a ceremony | Source: US Navy
Text Size: A- A+

Pakistan’s security establishment may be excited about finding the right person to do an important job – help restart its conversation with Washington. Moeed Yusuf, the newly sworn National Security Advisor who was recently elevated from the position of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, was dispatched to Geneva to meet his American counterpart Jake Sullivan. Although one can only speculate if Yusuf is up for the job, he is expected to deploy his perceived advantage of having spent a decade or more in the think tank and security policy circle in the US capital to start a conversation with the Americans that the Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his cabal currently need.

The General Headquarters in Rawalpindi wants two friends instead of just one, which means that it earnestly wants to hold on to the US that seems to be disengaging strategically. A generational shift in strategic relationship is at play here, and is worth watching in the coming years. Pakistan military’s dependency on the Chinese for technology has grown consistently. General Bajwa is perhaps of the generation that continues to want a military-technological relationship with the US despite its possibility turning increasingly dimmer. The Pakistan Army chief is still reminded of his meeting with former US President Donald Trump, who had promised him the moon. The Biden administration with its strategic priorities, however, is a different ball game.


General Bajwa and his team belong to a generation of military commanders that represent hybrid Pakistani-American trained generals. Their career is marked by a long engagement with Washington and by Pakistan’s significance for the US in fulfilling the latter’s goals in Afghanistan. While the US may still be interested in Afghanistan and what happens in Central Asia, its traditional military engagement with Afghanistan, especially via Pakistan, is coming to an end. As Pakistan gets used to the shift, it still wants to hang on to the old relationship.
Also read: Pakistan wants Biden to see from new lens. But it made a mess in Daniel Pearl’s case
Pakistan knows what it can get and cannot
Although Islamabad has never confessed to its ties with the US being strategic, a title that is only kept for China (and lately Saudi Arabia), it is a significant set of relations that the military echelons do not want to abandon. The message delivered to the American NSA, Jack Sullivan, was that Pakistan wants an engagement beyond the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is, however, not known how far Pakistan is willing to go to engage with American security interests. Though observers suspect that a military base was offered, the idea sounds remote. There is far more at stake and the situation is much different from 2001 when Pakistan had allowed the US to use its airspace and bases. Pakistan cannot afford to annoy the Taliban, which has already warned “Afghanistan’s neighbours” against giving the Americans access to their bases. In any case, Islamabad is not yet ready to disengage from its main set of friends in Afghanistan, especially at the time of American withdrawal. Furthermore, with the recent flare-up in Palestine, Islamabad would have to be doubly cautious about what it offers to the US.

Not to forget the Chinese, who have infrastructure investment in Pakistan and do not appreciate sharing space with the Americans. There is a lot of speculation about Islamabad wanting to swap ties with China for the US, which is also not likely. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has its problems, but the project is not abandoned. With the US only marginally interested in Pakistan, Beijing remains the only country with an interest in investing in the much-needed infrastructure investment.

Islamabad is not willing to let go of the relationship with the US and continues to talk about a reset in its priorities without necessarily undertaking a major reset. A significant transformation is required to shift the relationship goal from military to economic. Islamabad badly needs to change its institutional infrastructure to be able to make its economy vibrant and attractive to the outside world. There is also a huge gap between American and Pakistani view of Chinese power, particularly the CPEC. Needless to say, there is an underlying understanding that the F-16s or any other major technology is not on the table for any bilateral conversation.

Such technology transfer is now impossible because American priorities are different, and that a technology handout to Pakistan will go against the grain of Washington’s newly developing ties with India. Moreover, the US will not be inclined to transfer technology to Pakistan that tends to share it with China. Rawalpindi will probably have to work more to understand the complexity of Quad and that it does not fit into America’s Indo-Pacific plans, the goals of which are very different and contrary to Pakistan’s own strategic objectives and relationships. It certainly cannot become party to a plan that focuses on ‘othering’ China, and certainly does not want to be included in the list of the ‘other’. There is a certain belief that Washington could be convinced to abandon the Indo-Pacific project or at least tone it down.

Proverbially speaking, if Indo-Pacific was a room, Pakistan would want to stand inside — even if it doesn’t get a seat at the table and can’t give any input that could impact the strategic future of the region. It wants to keep a close watch over how America’s relations with India develop, or how the quad evolves into a force that can counter China. This way, it could also be useful to Beijing. It is not inclined to be relegated to the Chinese camp where it found itself in 2015. The foreign policy circle made an effort to bring the clarity that while it is believed that the future belongs to China, Pakistan would remain engaged with the US as well and not entirely abandon the bilateral relation to India. If Pakistan could run its two-friends policy during the critical decades of the 1960s and 1970s when China was a lesser power and America the bigger, then why cannot it do it now? The one issue is that this is quite different from the Cold War competition.
Also read: TLP is no Lashkar-e-Taiba, its agitation no civil war. Yet Pakistan is losing a battle

US will remain engaged but tradeoff is over
The US also seems inclined to keep some level of ties with Pakistan. This year in February, the American Navy participated in the Aman-21 naval exercise. Sources spoke about the two countries planning to hold another naval exercise this year. There are certain benefits of keeping Pakistan inside the room especially from the counter-terrorism perspective, an area in which persistent pressure seems to have paid off. Rawalpindi may not have abandoned its jihadi proxies, but it now, more than ever, sees the benefit of disengaging from violent non-State actors as a policy tool, at least as far as external operations are concerned. It may take a while before the country’s deep state abandons the option of engaging with militants entirely even for domestic purposes, for which a constant reminder is necessary. Not to forget that there is a strategic advantage for the US to keep a relationship in which it has invested for decades. The US is certainly not strategically popular in Pakistan but continued tactical engagement with the military echelons can have its payoffs.

Pakistan military’s top brass continues to consider itself as part of the Western strategic constellation. The country’s power elite, including the military top brass, is a beneficiary of American soft power. The personal future of some of the most significant players and their families are tied with the West, especially the US. The American military training programme, which is set to start again after Covid-19 restrictions ease, has been critical in providing Washington with links inside Pakistan’s armed forces. Restarting the International Military Education and Training (IMET) student exchange programme will at least fill the gap in the absence of a major purpose to enhance military-to-military contact.

Naturally, this is likely to change in the next decade or so, especially after the US withdraws its troops from Afghanistan. The two militaries will be less intensely engaged as they were in the past couple of decades. Furthermore, the US is no longer a source of major weapons procurement for Pakistan, which is why, increasingly, the new generation of military commanders will have Chinese training on their resume. The current naval and air chiefs, for example, have significant Chinese training. The dependency on the US, however, will continue as long as China does not improve the quality of its basic training for which Pakistan will keep looking at Washington. But for all weapons-related training, it will have no option but to look at China. A shift can already be foreseen.
For now, Islamabad will continue to remain in the twilight zone imagining, as Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said recently in reference to the US: “They will need us down the line so it’s better to remain engaged with Pakistan.” But while the generals wait for their NSA to pull some trick out of his hat, it will be worthwhile for them to think carefully about reimagining Pakistan and picking itself from the ashes of Covid that will leave the entire South Asian region in a mess.

Ayesha Siddiqa is research associate at SOAS, London and author of Military Inc; Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy. She tweets @iamthedrifter. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)
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Pakistan realises it can’t abandon US for China yet. But how far will Bajwa & Co go? (theprint.in)
Dual nationality and abroad settled businesses.
Qom ka derd rakhnay waly harami sab se pehly Bahar settle honay ki planning kerty hain.
That's the reason why USA was able to kill Zia ul Haq in one click. His murderers might be in USA or Canada these days.

The result of all that turns Pakistan into an orphan state, which is ready to do anything to survive.

Pakistan k logon ka khayal Pakistan main hi rakhain, Pakistan ko kisi camp ko join kerny ki zaroorat nahi.

Shikar gah hai Pakistan. Isy mulk bnany k liay aik zberdast tehreek abhi baqi hai.
 
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Stop bitching and tell what you disagree with and why.
Most of people labeled as anti-state choose to state obvious facts or mix facts with their own agenda,former can't be countered while later requires deep knowledge about subject matter in hand which 90% lack,best strategy is shoot the messenger.
 
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Pakistan realizes it can’t abandon US for China yet. But how far will Bajwa & Co go?
If Indo-Pacific was a room, Pakistan would want to stand inside even if it doesn't get a seat at the table.
Ayesha Siddiqa

AYESHA SIDDIQA 28 May, 2021 12:41 am IST


https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://theprint.in/opinion/pakistan-realises-it-cant-abandon-us-for-china-yet-but-how-far-will-bajwa-co-go/666884/
https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Pakistan+realises+it+can’t+abandon+US+for+China+yet.+But+how+far+will+Bajwa+&+Co+go?&url=https://theprint.in/opinion/pakistan-realises-it-cant-abandon-us-for-china-yet-but-how-far-will-bajwa-co-go/666884/&via=ThePrintIndia
https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://theprint.in/opinion/pakistan-realises-it-cant-abandon-us-for-china-yet-but-how-far-will-bajwa-co-go/666884/&title=Pakistan+realises+it+can’t+abandon+US+for+China+yet.+But+how+far+will+Bajwa+&+Co+go?

us-army-pakistan-wikimedia-commons-696x398.jpg
Representational image | US and Pakistan naval personnel at a ceremony | Source: US Navy
Text Size: A- A+

Pakistan’s security establishment may be excited about finding the right person to do an important job – help restart its conversation with Washington. Moeed Yusuf, the newly sworn National Security Advisor who was recently elevated from the position of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, was dispatched to Geneva to meet his American counterpart Jake Sullivan. Although one can only speculate if Yusuf is up for the job, he is expected to deploy his perceived advantage of having spent a decade or more in the think tank and security policy circle in the US capital to start a conversation with the Americans that the Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his cabal currently need.

The General Headquarters in Rawalpindi wants two friends instead of just one, which means that it earnestly wants to hold on to the US that seems to be disengaging strategically. A generational shift in strategic relationship is at play here, and is worth watching in the coming years. Pakistan military’s dependency on the Chinese for technology has grown consistently. General Bajwa is perhaps of the generation that continues to want a military-technological relationship with the US despite its possibility turning increasingly dimmer. The Pakistan Army chief is still reminded of his meeting with former US President Donald Trump, who had promised him the moon. The Biden administration with its strategic priorities, however, is a different ball game.


General Bajwa and his team belong to a generation of military commanders that represent hybrid Pakistani-American trained generals. Their career is marked by a long engagement with Washington and by Pakistan’s significance for the US in fulfilling the latter’s goals in Afghanistan. While the US may still be interested in Afghanistan and what happens in Central Asia, its traditional military engagement with Afghanistan, especially via Pakistan, is coming to an end. As Pakistan gets used to the shift, it still wants to hang on to the old relationship.
Also read: Pakistan wants Biden to see from new lens. But it made a mess in Daniel Pearl’s case
Pakistan knows what it can get and cannot
Although Islamabad has never confessed to its ties with the US being strategic, a title that is only kept for China (and lately Saudi Arabia), it is a significant set of relations that the military echelons do not want to abandon. The message delivered to the American NSA, Jack Sullivan, was that Pakistan wants an engagement beyond the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is, however, not known how far Pakistan is willing to go to engage with American security interests. Though observers suspect that a military base was offered, the idea sounds remote. There is far more at stake and the situation is much different from 2001 when Pakistan had allowed the US to use its airspace and bases. Pakistan cannot afford to annoy the Taliban, which has already warned “Afghanistan’s neighbours” against giving the Americans access to their bases. In any case, Islamabad is not yet ready to disengage from its main set of friends in Afghanistan, especially at the time of American withdrawal. Furthermore, with the recent flare-up in Palestine, Islamabad would have to be doubly cautious about what it offers to the US.

Not to forget the Chinese, who have infrastructure investment in Pakistan and do not appreciate sharing space with the Americans. There is a lot of speculation about Islamabad wanting to swap ties with China for the US, which is also not likely. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has its problems, but the project is not abandoned. With the US only marginally interested in Pakistan, Beijing remains the only country with an interest in investing in the much-needed infrastructure investment.

Islamabad is not willing to let go of the relationship with the US and continues to talk about a reset in its priorities without necessarily undertaking a major reset. A significant transformation is required to shift the relationship goal from military to economic. Islamabad badly needs to change its institutional infrastructure to be able to make its economy vibrant and attractive to the outside world. There is also a huge gap between American and Pakistani view of Chinese power, particularly the CPEC. Needless to say, there is an underlying understanding that the F-16s or any other major technology is not on the table for any bilateral conversation.

Such technology transfer is now impossible because American priorities are different, and that a technology handout to Pakistan will go against the grain of Washington’s newly developing ties with India. Moreover, the US will not be inclined to transfer technology to Pakistan that tends to share it with China. Rawalpindi will probably have to work more to understand the complexity of Quad and that it does not fit into America’s Indo-Pacific plans, the goals of which are very different and contrary to Pakistan’s own strategic objectives and relationships. It certainly cannot become party to a plan that focuses on ‘othering’ China, and certainly does not want to be included in the list of the ‘other’. There is a certain belief that Washington could be convinced to abandon the Indo-Pacific project or at least tone it down.

Proverbially speaking, if Indo-Pacific was a room, Pakistan would want to stand inside — even if it doesn’t get a seat at the table and can’t give any input that could impact the strategic future of the region. It wants to keep a close watch over how America’s relations with India develop, or how the quad evolves into a force that can counter China. This way, it could also be useful to Beijing. It is not inclined to be relegated to the Chinese camp where it found itself in 2015. The foreign policy circle made an effort to bring the clarity that while it is believed that the future belongs to China, Pakistan would remain engaged with the US as well and not entirely abandon the bilateral relation to India. If Pakistan could run its two-friends policy during the critical decades of the 1960s and 1970s when China was a lesser power and America the bigger, then why cannot it do it now? The one issue is that this is quite different from the Cold War competition.
Also read: TLP is no Lashkar-e-Taiba, its agitation no civil war. Yet Pakistan is losing a battle

US will remain engaged but tradeoff is over
The US also seems inclined to keep some level of ties with Pakistan. This year in February, the American Navy participated in the Aman-21 naval exercise. Sources spoke about the two countries planning to hold another naval exercise this year. There are certain benefits of keeping Pakistan inside the room especially from the counter-terrorism perspective, an area in which persistent pressure seems to have paid off. Rawalpindi may not have abandoned its jihadi proxies, but it now, more than ever, sees the benefit of disengaging from violent non-State actors as a policy tool, at least as far as external operations are concerned. It may take a while before the country’s deep state abandons the option of engaging with militants entirely even for domestic purposes, for which a constant reminder is necessary. Not to forget that there is a strategic advantage for the US to keep a relationship in which it has invested for decades. The US is certainly not strategically popular in Pakistan but continued tactical engagement with the military echelons can have its payoffs.

Pakistan military’s top brass continues to consider itself as part of the Western strategic constellation. The country’s power elite, including the military top brass, is a beneficiary of American soft power. The personal future of some of the most significant players and their families are tied with the West, especially the US. The American military training programme, which is set to start again after Covid-19 restrictions ease, has been critical in providing Washington with links inside Pakistan’s armed forces. Restarting the International Military Education and Training (IMET) student exchange programme will at least fill the gap in the absence of a major purpose to enhance military-to-military contact.

Naturally, this is likely to change in the next decade or so, especially after the US withdraws its troops from Afghanistan. The two militaries will be less intensely engaged as they were in the past couple of decades. Furthermore, the US is no longer a source of major weapons procurement for Pakistan, which is why, increasingly, the new generation of military commanders will have Chinese training on their resume. The current naval and air chiefs, for example, have significant Chinese training. The dependency on the US, however, will continue as long as China does not improve the quality of its basic training for which Pakistan will keep looking at Washington. But for all weapons-related training, it will have no option but to look at China. A shift can already be foreseen.
For now, Islamabad will continue to remain in the twilight zone imagining, as Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said recently in reference to the US: “They will need us down the line so it’s better to remain engaged with Pakistan.” But while the generals wait for their NSA to pull some trick out of his hat, it will be worthwhile for them to think carefully about reimagining Pakistan and picking itself from the ashes of Covid that will leave the entire South Asian region in a mess.

Ayesha Siddiqa is research associate at SOAS, London and author of Military Inc; Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy. She tweets @iamthedrifter. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram

ThePrint has the finest young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here.

Pakistan realises it can’t abandon US for China yet. But how far will Bajwa & Co go? (theprint.in)





I think this fat women had got it the other way around..

US needs Pakistan.. Pakistan doesn't want US for any thing... China is fulfilling the gap.
 
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First my comments are not against anyone & I apologise in advance for my straight talking.

Some people here want USA to invest here, for them American Govt. does not invest in private ventures but it's the American companies who had earlier invested here when the economic & social conditions were better. Many of them have divested & taken their capitol elsewhere as our economy did not expanded & remained very small & focused on agro-based industries only.

US Govt. only provides aid thru agencies like USAID for specific purposes.

If anyone wants Americans to invest here then we will have to be secular & open minded, security & justice must be expended to all & quickly, labor should be trained in specific skills, etc., etc.

We should not be in any camp but must have relations with all but we will always need USA for multi-lateral financial institutions and our exports. What do we export & where do we export??? Just basic things in direct competition of Chinese companies to USA & Europe.

If USA wants to hurt us they can simply put a ban on our exports on any pretext, where we will be just imagine.

Indeed now the the US will keep us at arm's length as there are better opportunities for them in India & it's a big market.

For military training & equipment, our military very much values & they will not let go any chance of their training & used EDA equipments.
 
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First my comments are not against anyone & I apologise in advance for my straight talking.

Some people here want USA to invest here, for them American Govt. does not invest in private ventures but it's the American companies who had earlier invested here when the economic & social conditions were better. Many of them have divested & taken their capitol elsewhere as our economy did not expanded & remained very small & focused on agro-based industries only.

US Govt. only provides aid thru agencies like USAID for specific purposes.

If anyone wants Americans to invest here then we will have to be secular & open minded, security & justice must be expended to all & quickly, labor should be trained in specific skills, etc., etc.

We should not be in any camp but must have relations with all but we will always need USA for multi-lateral financial institutions and our exports. What do we export & where do we export??? Just basic things in direct competition of Chinese companies to USA & Europe.

If USA wants to hurt us they can simply put a ban on our exports on any pretext, where we will be just imagine.

Indeed now the the US will keep us at arm's length as there are better opportunities for them in India & it's a big market.

For military training & equipment, our military very much values & they will not let go any chance of their training & used EDA equipments.

Well depends which country you are comparing Pakistan to , if comparing to the US then yes we have security and justice and open and secular and open mind . US already exports a lot of stuff to Pakistan and trade is a two way thing. We should never be reliant upon individual countries or blocks as in free market trade you can trade or not with whoever you want and when ever you want. US is entitled to take it's business else where and so is any other country, that's what free sovereign nations do based on their economic goals and strategies. Pakistan needs to break the shackles of third world mentality if it wants to a vibrant member of the new multipolar world order. We need to start selecting representatives are incorruptible and work for Pakistan and not for their own pockets.

"If anyone wants Americans to invest here then we will have to be secular & open minded, security & justice must be expended to all & quickly, labor should be trained in specific skills, etc., etc."
 
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This quasi Indian author is daydreaming. Pakistan is already in the China Russia camp. LOL America is begging for bases and we ain't giving them any.
 
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You never know that there could be an understanding for emergency landings on some air bases on their flight route like Pasni, Shamsi, Dalbandin, etc.
 
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how the quad evolves into a force that can counter China

"a force that can counter China" to be read as India's current administration, suffering from anything white inferiority complex, will be presented as punching bag to China for target practice. Be it with missiles or with iron clubs as we witnessed recently.

Seems like Indians are making the same mistake our establishment has been making for decades--falling for American promises, though our motives maybe entirely different. In our case it was the lure of dollars, hardware and some pats on the back for being a "frontline state against terror", India it seems like is trying to pre-maturely play the big boys game. You guys will learn this painful lesson in a decade or two when US suddenly finds the next big thing and moves on from China. India will be left with an angry China, a corrupt establishment and totally destroyed social fabric. Looking forward to it.
 
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