WASHINGTON: According to the US Department of Defense, China projects its military and economic might on Pakistan because Islamabad is still a key ally of Beijing.
The China Military Power 2022 report, which was made public on Tuesday, looks at how China plans to work with international partners like Pakistan to achieve its goal of “national rejuvenation” by 2049.
The report states that Russia is China’s only “comprehensive strategic partnership with coordination relations,” while Pakistan is China’s only “all-weather strategic partner.”
China has strengthened its ties with Pakistan and Russia, two of its historic partners, over the past five years. China is also likely to have “considered locations for military logistics facilities” in Pakistan.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China is mentioned in the report as being connected to Pakistani pipeline and port construction projects. China “seeks to become less reliant on transporting energy resources through strategic choke points, such as the Strait of Malacca,” however, with the assistance of those projects.
According to the report, Beijing also tries to use the relationships it builds through BRI to pursue additional economic cooperation with participating nations.
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It reviews that in 2021, 10 Chinese nationals were killed, and 26 others were harmed when a self-destruction plane designated a laborers’ transport en route to a BRI framework improvement project in Pakistan.
However, the report asserts that China used this incident to “develop closer regional and bilateral counterterrorism” cooperation with Pakistan to “extend its ability to project military power to safeguard its overseas interests, including BRI.”
The report examines China’s expanding military and economic ties to Pakistan and describes Beijing’s assistance to Islamabad in completing the Pakistan Remote-Sensing Satellite’s in-orbit delivery.
China also vigorously pursues its policy of providing military aid, including donations of military equipment, to a BRI host nation’s security forces.
Joint military exercises are among the examples of cooperation between China and Pakistan cited in the report. It mentions that China supplied Pakistan with strike-capable Caihong and Wing Loong unmanned aircraft systems during a joint naval exercise with Pakistan in 2020 and 21.
Pakistan’s purchase of eight Yuan class submarines from China in 2015 for more than $3 billion stands out as an example of this. Pakistan received four naval frigates from China in 2017 and 2018.
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Chinese troops have participated in training with Thai, Pakistani, Saudi Arabian, South African, and Djiboutian troops as part of the PLANMC, which aids the PRC in its military diplomacy.
In addition, Pakistan is a member of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, which is led by China.
A document required by Congress is the “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” also known as the China Military Power Report (CMPR). It is an authoritative assessment of China’s strategy for military and security.
China was identified as the “most consequential and systemic challenge” to US national security and a free and open international system in the National Defence Strategy released by the Pentagon in October.
The People’s Liberation Army’s way of war is described in detail in the military power report, which also looks at the PLA’s current activities and capabilities and its plans for future military modernization.
The Pentagon argues that China’s strategy to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” is supported by the establishment of a “community of common destiny.”
Beijing’s “revisionist aspiration” for the worldwide request gets from the goals of its public technique and the Socialist Coalition’s political and overseeing frameworks, it said.
