Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attend a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China on Monday (May 25, 2026).
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan and China have both sought to mediate in the West Asia conflict, sparked by U.S. and Israeli strikes. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif meets with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on September 4, 2025. Picture: X/@CMShehbaz

Islamabad:

Nations, like people, often reflect behavioural patterns. They have a reputation, depict habitual traits, and usually find the essence of their identity in their nature. So is the case with Pakistan – a country which never fails to find itself on the wrong side of history for its conduct – with friends and foes alike.

The latest in its series of antics, the nation, mired in a worrisome concoction of terrorism, poverty, inflation, rigged elections, civil unrest, political instability, and economic misery tried to arm-twist its “all-weather ally” China. As one would guess correctly – it didn’t end well, with Islamabad getting snubbed, yet again.

PAKISTAN’S ‘TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT’ TACTICS WITH CHINA

A high-level meeting was organised recently between senior government and military officials of Pakistan and China. Deliberations and negotiations over the future use of the strategic port of Gwadar in Balochistan was being discussed in accordance with the so-called ‘China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’. At this point, Pakistan, which perhaps momentarily forgot which side of the negotiating table its was sitting on, decided to flex its muscle.

Islamabad reportedly told Beijing that if it wants a military base in Gwadar, Pakistan might permit it only if Beijing is willing to arm it with a second-strike nuclear capability – catering to its age-old obsession to match New Delhi, which achieved it on its own. This tone, border-lining a threat, did not go down well with Beijing, which squarely rejected the outrageous demand and decided to put future talks on hold indefinitely over Islamabad’s baffling audacity.

A breakdown of diplomatic and military talks with China, even momentarily, does not bode well for Pakistan as cash-strapped Islamabad depends very heavily on economic bail-out packages from Beijing. China has also, for long, been a saviour for Pakistan’s military, supplying it with a majority of its arms and ammunition – everything from bullets to fighter jets. Pakistan’s Army, which has a history of interfering in decisions taken by its civilian government, is currently facing a crisis with large-scale anger and protests across the country over rigged elections and imprisonment of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, cannot afford to upset Beijing amidst the current situation on ground.

According to a report in Drop Site News, the Pak-China relationship is apparently “in free fall over public and private disputes over security concerns, as well as China’s demand to build a military base inside Pakistan”. Earlier this year, the news website reported on advanced talks over setting up a Chinese military base in Gwadar. According to classified Pakistani military documents seen by the news website, Islamabad had given “private assurances” to Beijing that it would be “permitted to transform Gwadar into a permanent base for the Chinese military”.

Retracting on its assurances, Pakistan is now making massive demands in return for the strategic port. Islamabad has asked Beijing to fulfill all its demands – military, economic, and otherwise – to protect it from a West-led backlash over handing over the port to China. But its demand for a nuclear triad and second strike nuclear capability goes well beyond even Beijing to consider.

China would open itself up to massive worldwide sanctions and isolation if it violates the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT by providing such advanced nuclear weapons capability or technology to a non-signatory of the NPT. As a signatory of the treaty, China is a classified Nuclear-Weapons State or NWS. The treaty explicitly prohibits all NWS countries from transferring any atomic or nuclear weapons, technology, or material to any non-NWS nation.

With such a demand, Pakistan is thereby telling China to put itself in peril just so that Islamabad can fulfill its obsession to counter New Delhi.

Beijing is also seething with anger after Islamabad did not allow the Chinese Navy to make a port of call at Gwadar port during the joint naval Sea Guardians III exercise between the two countries. Pakistan had done this after pressure from the United States over American sensitivity about a Chinese military presence at the strategically significant port.

WHAT IS A SECOND STRIKE NUCLEAR CAPABILITY

A second strike nuclear capability is the topmost deterrent any nuclear-weapons state can aim or aspire for. It is the most prized form of military deterrent a country can have. It means that a country which has faced a crippling conventional or nuclear attack from an enemy state still posses the capability to strike back with its nuclear weapons.

This is generally supported by a nuclear triad – which means that a country has the capability to launch its nuclear weapons from all three – surface, air, and sub-surface methods. Surface missiles and vehicles that carry them means the on-ground or land (silos) as well as at sea (from warships). Airborne means firing a nuclear missile from an aircraft, and sub-surface means firing a nuclear missile from under the ground or beneath the sea (submarine). SLBMs give the country the option to strike back even if its mainland has faced a crippling attack.

A second strike capability make the stakes of a first strike by the enemy too high, as it results in a devastating strike back on that enemy nation.
 

Maryam Nawaz.
| Photo Credit: AP

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Friday said that Chinese nationals living in Pakistan get “resentful” when they are asked to follow security protocols, a week after five Chinese engineers were among six killed in a suicide bombing in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Ms. Maryam, the daughter of three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who became the first-ever woman Chief Minister of a province in Pakistan, while addressing her maiden Apex Committee meeting here said “the Chinese living here do not want to follow security discipline”.

“They are resentful when they are asked to follow security protocols. They don’t want to come under any discipline as they fret over it,” she added.

The meeting was also attended by Corps Commander Lahore Lt Gen Syed Aamer Raza and other senior military officers.

Ms. Maryam, however, expressed her government’s resolve to provide fool-proof security to the Chinese nationals working on development projects in Punjab. The meeting also condemned the killing of Chinese engineers in Bisham.

Five Chinese engineers — and their Pakistani driver — were killed in the suicide bombing last week while travelling between Islamabad and a hydroelectric dam construction site in Dasu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The bus was attacked in Bisham city of Shangla district.

Ms. Maryam said terrorism has taken the shape of difficult warfare. “Terrorists got digitalised and we need to be ahead of them on such platforms. Besides, terrorists have the latest weapons and technology. They have the US weapons which they got in Afghanistan. The weapons coming from Afghanistan are a big challenge for the law enforcement agencies,” she said.

The 50-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party leader added that the youth is also being brainwashed and recruited by terrorists. “And social media is one of the major tools being used for the purpose,” Maryam said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed all the security agencies to ensure fool-proof security arrangements for the Chinese nationals working on various projects in the country.

According to a statement, the Prime Minister said he had decided to “personally review the meetings with respect to the overall security of the country, especially the security of the Chinese citizens”.

Mr. Sharif said the war against the menace of terrorism will continue till its complete eradication from the country.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chairs a high level security meeting with Pakistan’s Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir and other officials after a suicide attack, in Islamabad.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Chinese contractors have halted construction on two major dam projects in Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver this week, a provincial official told AFP on Friday.

The companies have demanded that Pakistan authorities come up with new security plans before reopening the sites where around 1,250 Chinese nationals are working, the official said.

The security of Chinese workers is a major concern to both countries, with nationals frequently targeted by militants hostile to outside influence.

The workers were targeted on Tuesday by a suicide bomber who rammed into their vehicle on a mountainous road near one of the dam sites.

He detonated his explosives on impact, plunging their vehicle into a deep ravine.

A senior official from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa interior department told AFP on condition of anonymity that since Wednesday, China Gezhouba Group Company has halted work on the Dasu dam in the province and Power China has stopped work on Diamer Bhasha dam, which straddles two provinces.

“They have demanded new security plans from the government,” he said.

“Around 750 Chinese engineers are engaged in the Dasu Dam project, while 500 are working on the Diamer Bhasha Dam,” he added.

He said the movement of Chinese engineers has been restricted to the compounds where they live, close to the sites.

China has not commented, but this week repeatedly urged Pakistan to ensure the safety of its nationals.

‘Iron-clad friends’

Beijing is Islamabad’s closest regional ally, readily providing financial assistance to bail out its often-struggling neighbour.

China has inked more than two trillion dollars in contracts around the world under its Belt and Road investment scheme, with billions pouring into infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

But Pakistanis have long complained that they are not getting a fair share of jobs or wealth created by the projects.

Tuesday’s attack sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity at the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Foreign and Interior Ministers offering condolences in quick succession.

China’s Foreign Ministry declared the countries “iron-clad friends” but asked Pakistan to “take effective measures to ensure the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects, and institutions”.

Tuesday’s attack came just days after militants attempted to storm offices of the Gwadar deepwater port in the southwest, considered a cornerstone of Chinese investment in Pakistan.

In 2019, gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Balochistan province overlooking the flagship Chinese-backed deepwater seaport in Gwadar that gives strategic access to the Arabian Sea — killing at least eight people.

In June 2020, Baloch insurgents targeted the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which is partly owned by Chinese companies, in the commercial capital of Karachi.