China-Pakistan relationship

左：巴基斯坦軍 中：中國人民解放軍 右：台灣代表




As the United States and India celebrate an increasingly warmer relationship, attention has focused on the reaction of Pakistan. Many experts predict the new closeness between the world's only superpower and Islamabad's fiercest rival will prompt Pakistan to develop even closer ties with its longtime strategic security partner, China.
What is behind the relationship between China and Pakistan?

"Traditionally, the driving factor for China was a hedge against India, and for Pakistan it was gaining access to civilian and military resources," says Kenneth Lieberthal, a noted China expert and professor at the University of Michigan. Pakistan was one of the first countries to recognize the People's Republic of China, in 1950. In the 1960s, Pakistan and China grew closer as China's relationship with India worsened, leading to a border war in 1962 in which Chinese forces easily defeated the Indian army. Islamabad and Beijing have had close relations since, with Beijing providing economic, military, and technical assistance to its western neighbor.