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20 October 2008
Chinas Main Foreign Policy Principle: Non-Interference, but not this time
The Chinese became involved in Pakistans descent into chaos last year. After the abduction and killing of Chinese technicians and businessmen on several occasions, China demanded, in unusually forceful language, better protection for its citizens against terrorism. The most violent event in Pakistan during 2007 was the July storming of the Lal Masjid Mosque in Islamabad, at Musharrafs orders, to end the occupation by religious militants, most of them seminarians. Nine days earlier, in a self-styled anti-vice campaign, these militants had kidnapped the Chinese boss and six Chinese women from a massage parlor.
9/11
After the 9/11 attacks on the US, China became aware that Pakistan was more part of the problem on the two most contentious issues terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction than of the solution. Strategic partnership with Pakistan on the old basis containment of India had become untenable. Pakistans I.S.I. had facilitated the Talibanization of parts of the country and thus paved the way for Al Qaeda. Chinas access to the Indian Ocean, alternative energysupply routes from the China-invested port of Gwadar on the Persian Gulf and economic development of Chinas Far West provided a new rationale for a revamped strategic relationship.
Gwadar, Pakistan
New focal point for strategic rivalry between the US, China and India
China and the US have gotten into a major contest for the Gwadar port in Pakistan. China partly financed Gwadars construction in response to the American presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to monitor US activity in the Middle East, Indian naval movements in the Arabian Sea, and future Indo-US maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean. China has so far paid $ 200 m of the $ 1.16 bn cost of Gwadar. Gwadar is on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, 72 km from Iran. It is near the mouth of the Persian Gulf and 400 km from the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 % of the worlds oil passes. China has put together a string of pearls from the Gulf to SouthChina. Gwadar is the westernmost pearl which should also help transform the economy of its landlocked Xinjiang Region.