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China has a good relationship with Pakistan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Pakistan_relations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Pakista

by rdtsc 7y ago

China has a good relationship with Pakistan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Pakistan_relations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Pakistan_relatio... I wonder how that plays into it, given the recent events in Kashimir: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/india-revokes-kashmir-special-status-latest-updates-190806134011673.html https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/india-revokes-kashmir... If I had to guess these sanctions and warnings are never purely technological and are mostly political.

eximius 7y ago
I don't know anything about this, but it seems quite surprising, given China's record of 'disappearing' millions of Muslims (and other citizens) right next door to Pakistan
- yumraj 7y ago
  China-Pak friendship is driven simply by their mutual enmity of India. Basically, enemy of my enemy is my friend.
  - hangonhn 7y ago
    Pakistan provides a very strategic route to the Persian Gulf for the Chinese. Even without the India-China rivalry (I hate using this term though because the relationship is quite a bit more complex than a simple rivalry), I think Pakistan would still be a valuable ally to the Chinese. During China's period of isolation, Pakistan also served as a diplomatic corridor to the other countries. Prior to the Nixon visit, China and the US met via Pakistan.
- hangonhn 7y ago
  People from the outside has a tendency to over estimate the unity of other groups. For a long time, the first world nations thought all the Communist countries were buddies but China had border wars with both the USSR and Vietnam. In the Islamic world, Muslim nations fought each other all the time as they still do today. In the Christian realms, the Crusades started with Western Christians sacking Constantinople and the wars of religion between the Catholics and Protestants were pretty brutal. France was at one point allied with the Turks during the period of the "Italian Wars". It tends to be that people think first of their own welfare and then maybe of their allegiance to the groups they belong to.
  - chillacy 7y ago
    A great essay on the topic: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anythin...
lacampbell 7y ago
And bewilderingly enough, the US continues to give Pakistan military aid.
- rdtsc 7y ago
  That is an odd one isn't it. It seems it is partly a bribe to make sure they safeguard their nukes and keep them from getting into the wrong hands, and also to ensure it doesn't harbor terrorists and militants who might interfere with America's ambitions in the region. Then India has traditionally, since Cold War times at least, been buying Soviet and Russian military technology. From that point of view, US probably wants to counter-balance it by arming Pakistan, to avoid Russia and India getting an upper hand in the region. Also, interestingly, in the last two years their military aid has been reduced by almost half https://www.statista.com/chart/12384/us-aid-to-pakistan/ https://www.statista.com/chart/12384/us-aid-to-pakistan/. It seems the current administration is keen on reducing foreign aid across the board so maybe that's not too surprising. Though if I was China, I would notice that and make sure to "fill that void" so to speak.

by rdtsc 7y ago

eximius 7y ago

I don't know anything about this, but it seems quite surprising, given China's record of 'disappearing' millions of Muslims (and other citizens) right next door to Pakistan

yumraj 7y ago
China-Pak friendship is driven simply by their mutual enmity of India. Basically, enemy of my enemy is my friend.
- hangonhn 7y ago
  Pakistan provides a very strategic route to the Persian Gulf for the Chinese. Even without the India-China rivalry (I hate using this term though because the relationship is quite a bit more complex than a simple rivalry), I think Pakistan would still be a valuable ally to the Chinese. During China's period of isolation, Pakistan also served as a diplomatic corridor to the other countries. Prior to the Nixon visit, China and the US met via Pakistan.
hangonhn 7y ago
People from the outside has a tendency to over estimate the unity of other groups. For a long time, the first world nations thought all the Communist countries were buddies but China had border wars with both the USSR and Vietnam. In the Islamic world, Muslim nations fought each other all the time as they still do today. In the Christian realms, the Crusades started with Western Christians sacking Constantinople and the wars of religion between the Catholics and Protestants were pretty brutal. France was at one point allied with the Turks during the period of the "Italian Wars". It tends to be that people think first of their own welfare and then maybe of their allegiance to the groups they belong to.
- chillacy 7y ago
  A great essay on the topic: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anythin...

lacampbell 7y ago

And bewilderingly enough, the US continues to give Pakistan military aid.

rdtsc 7y ago
That is an odd one isn't it. It seems it is partly a bribe to make sure they safeguard their nukes and keep them from getting into the wrong hands, and also to ensure it doesn't harbor terrorists and militants who might interfere with America's ambitions in the region. Then India has traditionally, since Cold War times at least, been buying Soviet and Russian military technology. From that point of view, US probably wants to counter-balance it by arming Pakistan, to avoid Russia and India getting an upper hand in the region. Also, interestingly, in the last two years their military aid has been reduced by almost half https://www.statista.com/chart/12384/us-aid-to-pakistan/ https://www.statista.com/chart/12384/us-aid-to-pakistan/. It seems the current administration is keen on reducing foreign aid across the board so maybe that's not too surprising. Though if I was China, I would notice that and make sure to "fill that void" so to speak.