Is Pakistan inching closer to a military occupation in all but name by China? Another terror attack, on Karachi’s airport, is raising the likelihood.
The communist power doesn’t give away money for nothing, after all. President Xi Xinping’s Belt and Road Initiative is widely regarded as more than just cynical influence-buying. Almost all of China’s developing ‘partners’ end up being pulled into debt-trap diplomacy. Bamboozled by over-optimistic promises from Beijing of the economic benefits of massive China-funded infrastructure project, more and more third word poo-holes end up under the CCP’s thumb.
Pakistan is no different.
When China and Pakistan last year announced the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) international road transport route, Pakistan had a national debt of about $100 billion, one-third of which was held by China.
Like many of the nations that foolishly took China’s money, Pakistan is finding itself turned into a Chinese military outpost.
The agreement also allowed the Chinese military to use a strategically advantageous port for 40 years.
Beijing is also suspected of aiding Pakistan in nuclear weapons development. Earlier this year, Indian authorities blocked a Pakistan-bound ship from China because it carried military-grade material that officials believed was being used for Pakistan’s missile development program. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the incident an “unjustified seizure.”
Pakistan is militarily significant because it brings Chinese bases right to the doorstep of one of its major rivals.
“China has invested a lot in its relationship with Pakistan, like it has with North Korea, because in both cases China wants to use its partnership with that country against a country it views as its rival,” Aparna Pande, author and research fellow at the Hudson Institute, said. “In the case of North Korea, China is targeting Japan, and in the case of Pakistan, the target is India.”
Pakistani local groups, though, are none too happy about what they see as just another foreign intruder on their soil.
Balochistan is one of Pakistan’s four provinces, largest by land mass and rich in natural resources. Baloch terrorists have periodically revolted, and the modern-day [Baloch Liberation Army (BLA)], which is allied with the Pakistani Taliban, has targeted the Chinese in Pakistan more than once.
In August, the BLA claimed responsibility for a day of multiple attacks in southwestern Pakistan, where more than 50 people were killed. The prime minister said the attacks targeted CPEC projects, as have some of the group’s previous attacks. Thousands of Chinese nationals are working on the multibillion-dollar CPEC project in Pakistan, which has created tension in the region.
In 2022, the BLA claimed responsibility for a van explosion on a university campus in Pakistan that killed three Chinese nationals, including the director of a Confucius Institute and the van’s Pakistani driver.
In an August 2018 letter, the BLA claimed responsibility for opening fire on Chinese nationals working in Karachi and threatened more attacks if the CCP did not halt “the exploitation of Baluchistan’s mineral wealth and occupation of Baluch territory.”
They’ve made good on their promise.
Two Chinese nationals were killed, and at least eight more people were injured in an explosion on the night of Oct 6 near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, southern Pakistan, in the latest deadly attack on Chinese in Pakistan.
The Chinese Embassy said it was a “terrorist attack,” and the U.S.-designated terrorist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) took credit for the attack in a statement emailed to journalists on Oct 7.
The BLA claimed that the attack was carried out using an improvised explosive device transported by a suicide bomber in a vehicle, targeting Chinese engineers at Pakistan’s largest airport.
Local police and government agencies reported that a tanker had exploded at about 11 pm local time on Oct 6, and video footage showed flames engulfing cars after the explosion. There was a heavy military deployment at the airport, which was cordoned off.
Which raises the question of how long China will put up with its nationals being killed by foreign terrorists.
The attack comes a week before Pakistan is set to host a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which was co-founded by China and Russia to grow alliances to counter the West.
The Chinese Embassy said it was working with Pakistani authorities to handle the aftermath, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on social media platform X that an investigation was underway.
“We will leave no stone unturned to ensure their security and well-being,” Sharif wrote.
And if the Pakistanis can’t keep the terror group in check?
There has long been a suspicion that China will deliberately exploit such unrest to move its own military in. This would, of course, take the form of ‘private security’ to protect ‘Chinese citizens’ working in Pakistan. But, if the attacks continue, the Chinese military presence will almost certainly grow and become more brazen.
And yet another country that can’t stop whining about colonialism will find itself once again a colony in all but name.
