Pakistan’s Relations with China and the US

Increasing Misgivings on all Sides

Abstract

The vision of a Naya (new) Pakistan enunciated by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party, faces seemingly insurmountable challenges. The new government has inherited poor relations with India, continuing conflict along the Af-Pak border, intractable internal security challenges, a failing economy, a huge external debt, and a steady souring of relations with the US. It also faces the possibility of a dent in its relations with China. By accommodating and promoting the geo-strategic interests of China and the United States in Southern Asia over several decades, Pakistan made itself virtually indispensable to both. However, the Trump administration is unwilling to countenance the Pakistan Army's doublespeak and has drastically curtailed military aid. And, in a bearhug which the Pakistanis did not see coming, China has entangled the country in a web of debt through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). China intends to make the CPEC the flagship project of its ambitious ‘Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI) for the geopolitical and economic domination of Asia.