Pakistan’s got a new best friend

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Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf may now have other options if the United States pressures him too much: He can look to China to be his friend and keeper.

In an example of the Middle Kingdom’s growing influence in the world, Chinese pressure is what may have finally prompted Musharraf to take on militants holed up in Islamabad’s Red Mosque. For weeks, seminarians from the mosque had been going around as their own self-appointed vice police, targeting people with “loose morals.” The last straw may have been when the vigilantes stormed a Chinese-run health center—often another term for sex parlor—and abducted seven Chinese, five of whom were alleged prostitutes. Two weeks later, three Chinese in Peshawar were killed.

Suddenly, writes Howard French of the New York Times, Chinese diplomats were pressuring Musharraf to stop sitting on his hands. The siege of the Red Mosque then ensued.

The mosque incident is just the latest sign that the already close bond between Pakistan and China is becoming tighter. China is the chief supplier of Pakistan’s military equipment, and last week the two countries agreed to expand their defense ties. Meanwhile, Pakistan is reaching out to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, whose members include China, Russia, and four Central Asian “stan” countries.

China’s economic and and military ties with Pakistan are growing, just as Beijing’s influence is increasing in Sudan and other African countries. The United States is going to have to come to terms with the fact that countries may increasingly have a new buddy to turn to when U.S. diplomats lay on the pressure too thick.