China’s diplomats have taken the unprecedented step of intervening in Pakistan’s complex domestic politics to ensure the smooth passage of its $45bn investment in infrastructure projects as part of its One Belt, One Road programme.
In recent weeks the Chinese embassy in Islamabad has twice issued press statements calling on Pakistan’s bickering politicians to resolve their differences over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Beijing is growing increasingly frustrated on a number of fronts at a time when Islamabad faces increasing international and regional pressure for continuing to host militant groups and is having to depend on China’s sole support in international groupings such as the UN. And if Beijing needed a reminder of the precarious security situation, an attack by terrorists this week on a police training college in Quetta, Baluchistan, left 60 police cadets dead and 120 wounded. Several militant groups active in the province claimed credit for the attack.