Washington, Sept 2(ANI): While China is of growing importance to Pakistan, it is unlikely to replace the United States' role as a dominant influence there, according to regional analysts.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari made a three-day visit to China this week at a time when relations between Islamabad and Beijing appear to be growing stronger.
Zardari has visited China twice since the US raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, and a total of seven times since becoming president, the Voice of America reports.
Ties have long been strong between Pakistan and China- a country Islamabad endearingly calls its "all-weather friend," however, some regional analysts say that the recent deterioration of US-Pakistan relations has pushed Islamabad into Beijing's arms.
The analysts argue the combination of repeated US drone strikes in Pakistani territory, the unilateral American raid on bin Laden's lair, and suspension of 800-million-dollar in military aid to Pakistan has brought Beijing and Islamabad closer together, the report said.
But regional analyst Tarique Niazi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, says that Zardari's most recent visit to China is part of an ongoing effort by Pakistan to seek help to address its urgent needs and boost trade, and not necessarily a sign of shifting alliances.
"Pakistan is short of energy resources. It has about 4,000 megawatts of electrical shortage. So, China is helping Pakistan meet that shortage of electricity," Niazi said.
One of the ways that China is doing that is by building massive hydropower projects in both Pakistan's northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
Niazi notes that representatives from both regions traveled to China this week with Zardari, who he says is constantly focused on three things: investment, trade and economic development.
"President Zardari, especially I must say, that he is the first leader of Pakistan whose focus is almost entirely on economic development and developing business relationships with not only the public sector and the government sector of China, but the private sector also," Niazi said.
Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations for India, Pakistan and South Asia, said that while Pakistan has been reaching out recently to China, in part to show Washington it has options, he is not convinced that Beijing is interested in seeing a real rupture between Islamabad and Washington.
"My sense is that, yes, over the long term, China would like to be the dominant influence in Pakistan and really expand its influence throughout the region, which would probably mean a lesser influence for the United States. But, in the short time, China has been very comfortable essentially free-riding off of whatever stability and security the United States has provided and that they do not want to change," Markey said.
He said that one reason for this is that a rupture in ties between Pakistan and the US could trickle over into relations between Beijing and Washington, and there the two already have enough to deal with as it is. (ANI)
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