The Beijing-Islamabad axis plays a central role in Asia's geopolitics, from India's rise to the prospects for a post-American Afghanistan, from the threat of nuclear terrorism to the continent's new map of mines, ports and pipelines. China is Pakistan's great economic hope and its most trusted military partner; Pakistan is the battleground for China's encounters with Islamic militancy and the heart of its efforts to counter-balance the emerging US-India partnership. For decades, each country has been the other's only 'all-weather' friend. Yet the relationship is still little understood. The wildest claims about it are widely believed, while many of its most dramatic developments are hid- den from the public eye. This book sets out the recent history of Sino-Pakistani ties and their ramifications for the West, for India, for Afghanistan, and for Asia as a whole. It tells the stories behind some of its most sensitive aspects, including Beijing's support for Pakistan's nuclear program, China's dealings with the Taliban, and the Chinese military's planning for crises in Pakistan.It describes a relationship increasingly shaped by Pakistan's internal strife, and the dilemmas China faces between the need for regional stability and the imperative for strategic competition with India and the USA.
The Beijing-Islamabad axis plays a central role in Asia's geopolitics, from India's rise to the prospects for a post-American Afghanistan, from the threat of nuclear terrorism to the continent's new map of mines, ports and pipelines. China is Pakistan's great economic hope and its most trusted military partner; Pakistan is the battleground for China's encounters with Islamic militancy and the heart of its efforts to counter-balance the emerging US-India partnership. For decades, each country has been the other's only 'all-weather' friend. Yet the relationship is still little understood. The wildest claims about it are widely believed, while many of its most dramatic developments are hid- den from the public eye. This book sets out the recent history of Sino-Pakistani ties and their ramifications for the West, for India, for Afghanistan, and for Asia as a whole. It tells the stories behind some of its most sensitive aspects, including Beijing's support for Pakistan's nuclear program, China's dealings with the Taliban, and the Chinese military's planning for crises in Pakistan.It describes a relationship increasingly shaped by Pakistan's internal strife, and the dilemmas China faces between the need for regional stability and the imperative for strategic competition with India and the USA.
Andrew Small has researched Chinese foreign and economic policy issues in Beijing, Brussels, London, and now Washington, D.C. He is a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
'...an excellent book.'
*Anatol Lieven, New York Review of Books*
'An original and timely contribution to this unusual relationship,
never formalized in an alliance as it faces the Western withdrawal
from Afghanistan'
*Times Literary Supplement*
'An impressive account of a little-understood friendship'
*The Economist*
'Exceptionally well-informed and insightful account'
*Foreign Affairs*
'Small has illuminated the complementary calculations in Beijing
and Islamabad which nurture this fascinating relationship, through
a painstaking survey of numerous, diverse sources, coupled with
extensive interviews throughout southern Asia. Small brings to bear
not only copious research but analytic subtlety that makes this
book both a joy to read and a veritable "keeper".'
*International Affairs*
'Small has written a valuable and perceptive book.'
*Survival journal*
'This unique and timely work provides fresh insights into one of
the most important and most neglected new developments in world
affairs - China's turn to south and west Asia. As the U.S. pivots
toward (East) Asia, Andrew Small shows us how China is moving
beyond traditional concepts of Asia.'
*Barnett Rubin, Senior Fellow and Director at the Center on
International Cooperation, New York University*
'Andrew Small's remarkable book paints a vivid picture of
twenty-first century geopolitics by uncovering one of the most
important and under-explored relationships. A gripping narrative of
how China's rise meets nukes, terrorists and the Taliban'
*Mark Leonard is Director of the European Council on Foreign
Relations and author of What Does China Think?*
'The China-Pakistan Axis explores one of the most resilient and
paradoxical bilateral relations of the post colonial era - a superb
illustration of the manner in which international relations can be
determined by power considerations. Pakistan and China have been
"all weather friends" for more than fifty years in spite of their
ideological differences. Andrew Small shows that their
rapprochement resulted mostly from a real politik assessment of
their common enemy, India, but that non material variables are back
in the picture today because of the Islamist connection in the case
of the Uighurs, for example. The strength of Small's work lies in
its analysis of the fascinating scope and trajectory of the Beijing
- Islamabad relationship.'
*Christophe Jaffrelot, Research Director at CNRS, Sciences Po and
author of The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience*
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