Islamism has long been a thorn in relations between China and Pakistan. Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, Pakistan’s Islamists made a determined push to forge closer ties with Muslim separatists in China. They made overtures in the mainly Muslim western province of Xinjiang. Some even believed the creation of an Islamic republic in China was possible. The resulting diplomatic strain haunts policymakers on both sides.
Today, Pakistan’s Islamists no longer flaunt ambitions to radicalise their Chinese co-religionists. Instead, they now see Beijing as a trusted friend. In the wider population, according to recent polls by Washington’s Pew Research Center, as many as three-quarters of those surveyed took a negative view of the US. The majority saw Pakistan’s biggest ally more as a foe than a friend, fearing it could become a military threat.
“China’s friendship to Pakistan is an important guarantee for our stability,” says Liaquat Baloch, a senior leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, a mainstream religious political party. “China relates to other countries without any agenda, where the US has an agenda which is all about interfering in the lives of others,” he says.