China eyes Pakistan as regional partner
The Chinese communist party tabloid Global Times has featured an Op-Ed by a research fellow in the Academy of Military Science titled “Sino-Pak ties a testing ground for new global order.” The thrust of the piece is on reorienting China-Pakistan strategic cooperation to cope with the changes in the global order characterized by the decline of the West and the surge of China, and China’s search for a new type of relationship with the US. The GT piece makes the case for a new globalization system in which China and Pakistan will actively engage in “South-South cooperation” and strive to “unify” (rally) other countries that are today passive participants in the US-led international system. It argues that China-Pakistan cooperation, which was based on “balanced diplomacy” historically, should assume a broader sweep whereby both “should view the troubles of the other as their own problems.” While the core of the partnership should be economic cooperatio...