airsuperiority
Captain
That article from Reuters is so politically motivated its laughable. You can almost see the naked envy dripping off the text when it talks about how much priority Pakistan's ISI is putting on the allegations.
The rest of the article is just a puff piece trying its level best to drive a wedge between China and Pakistan.
What the arthur failed to consider at all is how the ordinary person on the streets of Pakistan feels about China and the US.
It is no secret that large sections of the Pakistani (and muslim in general, so its hardly just a Pakistani 'issue') populous are opening hostile to the US because of its military adventures around the world, and especially in Muslim countries and its continued drone attacks on Pakistani territory.
That is why there are elements inside the ISI that harbor or even support the likes of the Taliban and AL-Q even today, and not because of some lofty geopolitical game Islamabad is playing.
The attitude towards China and the Chinese people in Pakistan could not be more different. The friendship between China and Pakistan is between peoples as much as it is between governments. And I would dare say that the vast majority of ordinary people in Pakistan would be pretty horrified if their territory was indeed used to train terrorists who later attacked China, and would be outraged and angered if their government was seen as not giving the matter top priority.
It is for these domestic reasons more so than loftier inter-state political reasons that Pakistan's response had been so rapid and high profile.
Even the biased western commentators have said right from the start that even if these allegations were true, it would not harm Sino-Pakistani relations much, as China understands if Pakistan cannot keep track of the comings and goings of all suspected individuals and camps in its territory, just like no country could truly eradicated organized crime.
I think if the decision to make public the allegations did come from Beijing, then the reason behind it was to raise awareness of the situation to ordinary people inside Pakistan as much as it is to give notice to Pakistan's government and security forces.
Having experienced first hand the kind of genuine warmth and good will ordinary Pakistanis have towards ordinary Chinese people they only just met, it would not surprise me at all if ordinary people and even militants themselves started vetting and checking the background of people coming into Pakistani towns and cities or even training camps to weed out those the suspect of having ill intentions towards China and alerting the authorities about them.
It is amazing how the west never seems to grasp how fundamentally important it is to have the popular support of the local population.
China knows this, and that is why it has cultivated a true friendship not only with the government of Pakistan, but with its people. Governments come and go, but so long as you have the friendship of the people, no matter who ultimately come into power in Pakistan, they will be a friend of China's.
Now that the allegations are out in the open, I would dare say these Uighur terrorists will find it much harder to find any sort of training and support in Pakistan and should probably count themselves lucky if their local hosts don't just 'dispose of them' or hand them over to the ISI.
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Anyways, back on topic, and right on form, the BBC puts out another almost pre-forma propaganda piece trying to whitewash the actions or deny the existence of the terrorists and pile all the blame on Beijing and the 'Han Chinese' (like many Chinese actually make such a distinction, I had Uighurs and Manchurians in my class all through school in China and no-one ever really cared, never mind make any fuss about it).
Notice how there was not a single line of condemnation about the attacks or even expression of sympathy towards the victims of the attacks in that entire piece.
The bigot author even went so far as to invent his own 'grievances' when none where presented to try and excuse such inexcusable crimes.
I wonder what kind of reception he would have gotten if he changed 'China' to 'America' and 'Uighur' to 'Muslims'.
Agreed. I've heard from somewhere that if a Chinese and an American were fighting in the streets in Pakistan, the Pakistanis will join the fight to mob the American. I'm not sure where I've heard that, but I wonder if that's true.
