In 1968, the Pakistani mission complained to Chairman Mao that the country had no money to build the Karakoram Highway. For this reason, the great man directly allocated 500 million to assist Pakistan in building it!

In 1968, the Pakistani mission complained to Chairman Mao, saying that the country had no money to build the Karakoram Highway . For this reason, the great man directly allocated 500 million to assist Pakistan in building it!

As for the great man's decision-making, some people in China have doubts. Can such generosity really be rewarded?

But later everyone discovered how brilliant the great man’s decision-making was!

So, why do giants want to help Pakistan? What kind of reward did Pakistan give us?

0's Storm

The 1960s of the last century was a time of great changes and turmoil for the East.

At this time, Sino-Soviet relations were deteriorating, and relations with the United States were not good either. Neighboring countries and regions such as Southeast Asia and India had successively fallen to the U.S.-Soviet camp. In addition, countries such as Japan and South Korea, which were originally in the camp, It can be said that the East at this time has completely fallen into a diplomatic dilemma.

At this critical moment of life and death, in the end, the great man keenly discerned the breakthrough point in China's diplomatic dilemma, and immediately made the decision to make every effort to make good friends with a country located in the southwest of our country.

Especially in 1968, the great man directly allocated 500 million to assist the country in building roads.

And this country favored by great men is Pakistan .

It seems now that the decision made by the great man was definitely very wise. However, in the eyes of some people in the country at the time, it was not a wise choice to befriend Pakistan.

Although China and Pakistan established diplomatic relations as early as 1951, in fact, China and Pakistan adopted foreign policies that were hostile to each other. The United States and the Soviet Union were still the culprits behind such a bad situation.

At that time, the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, were striving to develop their power in the South Asian subcontinent . Therefore, they successively launched economic assistance to Pakistan and planned to support their agents in the two countries.

In this economic contest, the United States relied on financial support and foreign investment to gradually gain the upper hand, and eventually won Pakistan's support.

So at the United Nations General Assembly , Pakistan followed the footsteps of the United States and voted against issues such as delimiting the borders of the eastern powers and restoring China's seat. This undoubtedly caused tension in the relationship between China and Pakistan.

Not only that, with the instruction and support of the United States, Pakistan also supports the Taiwan authorities and interferes in my country's internal affairs.

You must know that at this time, our country has fully mobilized for the cross-sea battle, and the United States openly instigated Pakistan's despicable behavior of provoking China, which is clearly planning to split our country, which naturally makes China intolerable.

hates the country and the country, and some people in the country also have a bad impression of Pakistan. So when the great men decided to befriend Pakistan, they felt confused and thought it was not in the interest of the country.

So, is this decision really not in the national interest? In fact, on the contrary, the great man finally made this decision after careful consideration.

And great people do this for three reasons.

The first reason is that the relations between China and India and India and Pakistan have deteriorated at this time.

In October 1962, facing India’s increasingly rampant provocations and even armed invasion, China, which could not tolerate it anymore, launched a self-defense counterattack against India.

In just one month, the People's Liberation Army, which fought bravely and fearlessly, annihilated the Indian Army's so-called elite 7th Brigade and 4th Division, drove the invading Indian Army off the plateau, and wiped out the Indian Army's placement in our territory. nail.

After the People's Liberation Army achieved such magnificent results, in order to maintain diplomatic relations between China and India, the great man not only did not order the pursuit of victory, but also ordered the troops to unilaterally cease fire and retreat behind the actual control line, and repeatedly called for peace negotiations between the two countries. .

However, the angry India did not appreciate it at all. It turned around and broke the non-alignment proposition it proposed and pursued, fell into the arms of the United States, and increased its isolation from the Eastern powers.

However, India does not appreciate it, but his neighbor Pakistan does not think so.China's reasonable and measured performance in the Sino-Indian war won the support of Pakistan. Its domestic public opinion reversed its previous prejudice against China and began to positively promote the eastern power.

In addition, it is well known that since the partition of India and Pakistan, the relationship between India and Pakistan has been very poor. A conflict broke out between the two countries in 1947, which was the first India-Pakistan war.

In 1965, the two countries fought a second war over the ownership of Kashmir, and relations continued to deteriorate.

And the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Therefore, after China and India and India and Pakistan turned against each other, China and Pakistan invariably chose to make good friends with each other out of consideration of their own interests.

Secondly, changes in Pakistan’s domestic political environment are the second reason why the great man decided to make good friends with Pakistan.

Before the 1960s, those who controlled the domestic political power in Pakistan had always been pro-American and British factions supported by NATO . They naturally had a favorable impression of the capitalist camp , and thus were hostile to the East.

However, this situation changed in the 1960s. At this time, the conflicts between East and West Pakistan began to intensify, and the pro-American and British authorities were unable to quell the disputes.

So with the recommendation of the people, Ayub Khan, who had strong skills, ascended to the throne of president.

At the beginning of his succession, he used a series of means to calm political disputes and stabilize the situation, which also allowed him to win more people's support.

Not only that, during his tenure, he also abolished the pro-British and American policies formulated by his predecessor, saying that he did not believe that the United States assisted Pakistan out of friendship, and most Pakistani people never believed it.

In fact, this is indeed the case. After seeing that Pakistan could not benefit from it, the United States began to vigorously reduce aid to Pakistan and transferred the aid to India, Pakistan's enemy.

In just one year from 1960 to 1961, the United States provided India with more than $4 billion in various grants.

What disappointed Ayub Khan even more was that the United States openly favored India militarily under the guise of "mediating" the conflict between India and Pakistan. In November 1962, they shipped 12 C-130 transport aircraft to India at a low price.

In this way, the United States and Pakistan gradually drifted apart, and finally essentially severed their aid relations.

As a small country, it is obviously unrealistic to fight against India and the United States behind it alone. Therefore, Pakistan began to consider which big country it should have good relations with.

The Soviet Union, which was confronting the United States, was undoubtedly a better choice. However, at this time, the Soviet Union pursued hegemony and liked to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and it was relatively far away from Pakistan.

At this time, a neighboring country that never interfered in other countries' internal affairs and adhered to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence naturally entered their field of vision. This was a great Eastern country.

In 1964, Premier Zhou Enlai and Ayub Khan were invited to conduct a friendly diplomatic visit, and relations between the two countries began to heat up rapidly.

Finally, the change in the foreign policy of the great eastern country is the third reason why the great man decided to have good relations with Pakistan.

As mentioned before, the great Eastern countries were blocked and attacked by the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s, and fell into an isolated and helpless situation internationally.

In order to change this dilemma, the great man far-sightedly focused his diplomacy on the emerging countries of the third world . For example, two of our neighboring countries, as well as Albania , have received support from China.

In addition, under the instructions of the great man, Premier Zhou also publicly stated that our country has never opposed other countries' aid to third world countries, but our country is opposed to certain countries interfering in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of aid.

Premier Zhou's words were immediately approved by Pakistan. They had experienced colonial rule and US interference and had a deep understanding of this, so they developed a good impression of China.

In this way, under my country's new foreign policy, China and Pakistan soon signed an economic and technical cooperation agreement in January 1963, granting each other most-favored-nation status and establishing trade cooperation relations.

In 1968, when the Pakistani mission complained that there was no money in the country to continue building the Karakoram Highway, the great man generously allocated 500 million directly to assist the construction of the brotherly countries.

As mentioned before, when the great man decided to make good friends with Pakistan, his decision was questioned by some people, and now he has to use domestic money to support Pakistan, which is even more incomprehensible.

Benefits of building roads

However, in fact, Chairman Mao’s decision to make good friends with Pakistan and help Pakistan build roads actually had two major benefits.

First of all, the first and most direct benefit is to strengthen the economic exchanges between the two countries.

Since Pakistan is located in the Pacific Rim Seismic Zone , with frequent geological activities and most areas are mountainous, the country is rich in mineral resources.

For example, coal resources are known as the "source of industry". According to estimates by geological exploration personnel, there are at least 185 billion tons buried under the domestic strata.

And in the four provinces of Pakistan , each province has iron ore veins. If we only count the large veins, the reserves are as high as 600 million tons, not to mention countless small veins. .

Among the four provinces, Balochistan is a province rich in resources. There are more than 20 copper mining areas in the region, and none of them has huge reserves. What is even more amazing is that each copper mining area is also associated with a large number of gold mines.

Not only that, there are nearly 600 million tons of high-value earth and stone such as marble, granite , gypsum, porcelain clay and even gemstones in Pakistan. These stones are not only abundant in reserves, but also in various types and patterns.

In addition, the most important oil and gas resources are not far behind. According to joint detection by China and Pakistan, Pakistan’s total domestic oil and natural gas reserves are 27 billion barrels and nearly 8 trillion cubic meters respectively, while is difficult to exploit. Shale oil and shale gas reserves have also reached 9 billion barrels and 176 trillion cubic meters respectively.

However, due to its weak industrial base and backward mining technology, Pakistan can only look at the treasure mountain and wonder how to monetize it.

Therefore, the great man’s decision to help Pakistan build roads undoubtedly solved Pakistan’s urgent need.

The economic exchanges and cooperation between China and Pakistan have since taken a step further, with air transport, sea transport and border trade opening up one after another.

More than 90% of the agricultural products and mineral resources exported by Pakistan have entered the country of the Eastern countries. In particular, Pakistan's advantageous products, cotton and leather, have been selling well in my country's domestic market.

China reciprocates the favor, not only exporting a large amount of industrial products such as steel and machinery, but also assisting Pakistan in building roads, railways, schools and other infrastructure, as well as heavy machinery factories, heavy forging and casting plants, electrical appliances factories, sugar mills, and textile factories. and industrial facilities such as mines.

At the end of 1992, China and Pakistan signed a Karachi Nuclear Power Plant cooperation agreement to help Pakistan build a nuclear power plant and export advanced nuclear power generation equipment to it.

During the period of China-Pakistan economic cooperation, it can be said to be mutually beneficial, and both parties have received economic improvements as a result.

Pakistan, in particular, not only has a complete infrastructure, but its annual economic growth level is higher than the world average. You know, before that, Pakistan was still a poor and backward agricultural country.

The second benefit of the great man’s decision to help Pakistan build the road was to break the blockade between the United States and the Soviet Union.

At this time, the Eastern powers made good friends with Pakistan, which actually broke part of the blockade between the United States and the Soviet Union. The aided construction of the Karakoram Highway has taken the exchanges between China and Pakistan a step further.

Under the instructions of the great man, starting from 1969, some road sections and bridges that were originally supposed to be built by Pakistan were replaced by China with a contribution of 500 million yuan.

This move has greatly improved our country’s reputation in Pakistan, and has also indirectly improved our country’s reputation within third world countries, especially in Africa. Since the 1960s, more than 50 countries have switched to Great Eastern country.

And with the support of the third world, our country has also accelerated the process of returning to and the United Nations . When the United Nations General Assembly voted to restore the legitimate seats of the Eastern powers, 51 third world countries, including Pakistan, voted in favor.

This fully demonstrates how wise the decision made by the great man to support and help each other between China and Pakistan was.

In 1978, the Karakoram Highway built with China's aid was officially opened to traffic. As the eighth miracle in the history of world construction, this bridge became a symbol of China-Pakistan friendship and opened a new chapter in China-Pakistan relations.

In the ten years from 1959 to 1969, China-Pakistan relations achieved a huge turning point and developed rapidly. Therefore, this period is also called the "golden decade" of China-Pakistan relations.

As a Pakistani folk proverb says: "China-Pakistan relations are higher than the Karakoram Mountains, deeper than the Arabian Sea and sweeter than honey!"

Reference:

Kong Liang "Introduction to Pakistan"

Cheng Yuhang ""Iron" Buddy "Pakistan"

Tang Guanghui "Historical Analysis of Pakistan's Foreign Policy"

Ye Huanrui "Analysis of the Motives for Sino-US Aid to Pakistan"