Terrorism: The Glue That Holds China Pakistan Together

The father of communism, Karl Marx, once famously said — “We have no compassion, and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror”. This statement summarises how terrorism and communism go hand in hand.

China, living up to the same ethos, on 12^th August, blocked a proposal at the UN Security Council to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar as a global terrorist. India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi called it most unfortunate and said India would continue to pursue its principled position of bringing the terrorist to justice, including through the UN Security Council’s sanction regime.

It is a miracle to see the kind of bonhomie China and Pakistan display. One would never expect such a display from two diverse nations. In one nation believing in God is a crime and in another, not believing in God is a crime.  So, what glues them together? There are many reasons one could think of, but one that comes on the top is the complete disregard for world order. And the instrument to fulfil that is — terrorism.

Terror — A Way Of Life

Genocide, Politicide, Red Holocaust, Democide, and Classicide, are numerous ways in which thinkers of their time have tried to explain red terrorism. The hypothetical necessity to move from Capitalism to Communism is achieved in the following steps:

• Revolution
• Dictatorship of the Proletariat
• Destruction of the Capitalist State
• Liquidation of the Bourgeoisie
• Creation of Socialism
• Creation of the New Socialist Man
• Withering Away of the State
• Emergence of Communism

In the list mentioned above, one has to replace socialism and communism with Pakistani Wahhabism, and the whole game plan would be understood.

The end result of these murderous steps was expressed well by R J Rummel in his book, ‘Death by Government’. He states that 110 million people were killed by Communist democide from 1900 to 1987. Maoist China alone destroyed between 44.5 to 72 million lives. During present times Covid-19 has wiped out 6.4 million humans worldwide, and these figures do not include undisclosed Chinese numbers. However, China doesn’t show remorse or guilt; instead, it mocked the nations struggling with the manmade pandemic.

Why Pakistan

When the first Pakistani ambassador, Major General Nawabzada Agha Mohammad Raza, presented his credentials to Mao in 1951, Mao snubbed him by stating, “I have great pleasure in receiving the letter of credentials; of the King of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions.” Pakistan, in its zeal and desire to be called a great power broker, kept taking insults at the hands of Chinese leadership in a servile manner regularly.

However, the uprising of Lhasa in 1959 and the Indo-China war of 1962 presented a chance for Pakistan to seal the deal and become an all-weather friend of China. Pakistani ambassador to Beijing sycophantically declared that the relationship between the two countries is “higher than the mountains, deeper than the oceans, stronger than steel, dearer than eyesight, sweeter than honey.”

China very well knew the weaknesses of the Pakistani leaders. It recognized that Paki Generals and Leadership suffer from DSM-5 syndrome and exploited that condition well. In the ’80s, it psyched Pakistan about the impending takeover by USSR. In the ’90s, they created the same fear about the USA. And throughout the history of independent Pakistan, India was made the arch-rival.

Pakistan — Breaking The Bread With The Non-believer

Pakistani Generals and President Ayub Khan, who were used to British-style short duration of wars, were advised in a meeting in Beijing by Zhou Enlai to use Guerrilla attacks on its enemies like USSR, Afghanistan, Iran, the USA, and India. Zhou Enlai told them that the war is a continuous process and should always be on. Pakistan kept learning and improvising terror tactics. East Pakistan was the first testing ground of Pakistan’s newfound love — terrorism.

The 1978 coup in Pakistan brought dictator Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, to the fore, and Pakistan never looked back. Zia-ul-Haq adopted Wahhabism and imposed Sharia law in the country. Even though Islam is vehemently against non-believers, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, after implementing the Sharia law, got even closer to a non-believer country, China.

Over the years, the Pakistani military learned the art of mixing radical Islam (read Wahhabism) with red terror tactics and created its own Frankenstein.

In Picture: IC 814 at Kandahar airport

Mocking The World Order

Masood Azhar, the founder of JeM, is the world’s most wanted terrorist. The hatred of Masood Azhar and his patrons for other religious beliefs is evident in Masood Azhar’s book ‘Yehud Ki Chalees Bimariyan’ (Forty Diseases Of The Jews) – considered the most anti-Semitic book of its time in the Urdu language. Masood Azhar calls Judaism “cancer seeping into all of humanity” and provokes “real” Muslims “to challenge all non-Muslims on the battlefield of jihad.”

Masood Azhar’s supporters and graduates have been involved in numerous acts of terror: the kidnapping and beheading of the American journalist Daniel Pearl; the 2005 London underground bombings; an attempt to blow up a transatlantic airline through liquid bombs; the bombing of the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly; an attack on the Indian parliament; an attack on the Indian embassy in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan; an attack on the Pathankot airbase and the Uri army camp, and last but most ghastly suicide attack and killing of 44 paramilitary forces in Pulwama.

The civilized world has been trying to bring the terror perpetrator to justice, but every time China vetoed the whole process. March 2019 was the fourth time and the third successive year that China blocked a motion to blacklist Azhar at the UN.

Beijing also vetoed the move in 2009, a year after the Mumbai terror attack was carried out by militants affiliated with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. In June 2022, China vetoed a joint proposal by India and the United States in the UN to list Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as a ‘Global Terrorist.’ Makki is a US-designated terrorist and the brother-in-law of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

China has a long history of associating with terrorist organizations. In 2000, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan held a meeting with Mullah Omar of the Taliban. Did the ambassador meet up with the dreaded extremist to assign him some tasks, or was he there asking for a favor? In September 2001, 9/11 happened; however, China abstained from voting on UN sanctions against the Taliban.

In 2009-10 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) invited leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), both Deobandi fundamentalist organizations working under the umbrella of the Taliban, to China. JI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that JI would not use its activities against China. However, what JI got in return for this favor is anyone’s guess.

China — The Milo Minderbinder of Catch-22

Joseph Heller’s book. ‘Catch 22’ has many interesting characters, but First Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder has all the attributes of China. He is the mess officer at the U.S. Army Air Corps base and becomes obsessed with expanding mess operations and trading goods for the profits of the syndicate. Milo is a satire of the modern businessman, and beyond that is the living representation of Chinese Capitalism, as he has no allegiance to any country, person or principle unless it pays him and profit is generated.

Characteristics of Milo Minderbinder are seen in all the leadership of China and Pakistani generals. After the 9/11 catastrophe, China despite declaring wholehearted support for the coalition forces, maintained a relationship with ‘Quetta Shura’. China assured the world that it wants peace and stability in the region but on the parallel kept supplying weapons, arms and ammunition to the Taliban. As per a BBC report, these weapons were used against coalition forces, killing thousands of soldiers.

It would be naive to think that these weapons do not land up in India and used against Indian security forces. In 2003, China had a trade surplus of $124 billion (census.gov) with the US alone. In the last financial year China’s trade surplus with India stood at $130 billion. So, in a way the USA and India have been sponsoring the terrorist attacks on their own land.

On the surface China does show a desire for cordial relationship with the USA and India. However, its think-tanks have another story to tell. In the past they have threatened to sink the US aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. Against India, in an article, under the pseudonym “Zhan Lue”, a Chinese strategist argued that if China “takes a little action, the so-called great Indian federation can be broken up.” He further states that Beijing “should work towards the break-up of India into 20-30 independent states with the help of friendly countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan”. However, in India, officially, we still uphold the one-China policy.

Parochial Leaders – Gerrymandering Leadership

Clausewitz in war classic ‘On War’ explains how the leaders who show great determination as junior leaders but lose it as they rise. Conscious of the need to be decisive, they also recognize the risk entailed by a wrong decision; since they are unfamiliar with the problem now facing them, their mind loses incisiveness. The more they had been used to instant action, the more their timidity increases as they realize the dangers of the vacillation that ensnares them. And so, they stare straight ahead, listening to no one, fearing distractions, clinging to command even as it leads them into disaster. Thereby confirming the high-altitude rarity of common sense (common sense is indeed like oxygen; the higher you go the thinner it gets).

This is the exact state of mind of Pakistani and Chinese leadership today. They are clinging to power, ignoring the requirements of the populace of their respective countries and the region since they got busy in creating monsters and furthering their personal agendas. In the bargain their condition has become like a dog who catches cars but never knows what to do with it. Their grammar has become their logic and they got blinded in the rage to destroy all else around them, be it countries or people, and reign supreme.

It is up to Pakistani, as well as Nepali, Bangladeshi and Bhutanese citizens to understand that China is there to exploit their country. They must ensure that their governments and militaries do not conspire with China to create a two-headed monster called ‘Terrorism.’ If it has the capability to sink teeth into others, then it has the capacity to bite back.

“Pakistan is China’s Israel” ~ General Xiong Guangkai, Deputy Chief-of-Staff, PLA, 1996-2005

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