Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Pakistan (HBS) organized and supported a small delegation from Pakistan to visit China from May 18 – 25, 2009. The delegation consisted of the following participants: Mr. Farrukh Saleem and Mr. Imtiaz Gul, Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) and Ms. Saima Jasam and Mr. Gregor Enste, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Pakistan.
 
The idea for this interaction was three fold. Firstly to learn about the Chinese foreign politics vis-à-vis Pakistan and also its regional approach on South Asia. Another idea was to be exposed to Chinese contemporary social change and to build understanding around the economical and financial systems with its global and regional implications. Second objective was to brief the interested Chinese scholars and decision makers on the current political scenario in Pakistan. Last but not least, to explore future areas of mutual cooperation with Beijing office of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and also to build and explore linkages and areas of cooperation between Chinese think tanks and HBS supported Pakistan think tank CRSS. In order to meet these objectives the Beijing office organized a great program at various institutes, organizations and think tanks where this delegation interacted.

The meeting at the Department of South Asian Studies at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) was an eye opener for the Pakistan delegation. It made very clear that China is Pakistan’s friend but its foreign policy towards Pakistan is under review and China is emerging as a global power. They also made clear that American policy of linking Pakistan and Afghanistan as one is contested in China. They have high hopes from the Pakistani army, they said as long as Pakistani army stays strong Pakistan future would be stable.

The visit to the Women’s Legal aid center (WLAC) Beijing University was also an experience. The organization was founded in 1992 and the delegation was lucky to interact with the Board member who also happened to be the founder member of the organization. This meeting provided an opportunity to learn about the laws and women issues and they showed great interest on the gender issues and prevailing laws in Pakistan.

The meeting with Professor Zha Daojing at the Peking University was yet another experience. Although an expert on energy issues a lot of discussion went around the Gwadar Port and the Chinese and Pakistani stakes on it.

The Center for Regional Security Studies, Chinese Academy of Social sciences (IAPS, CASS)  takes out two regular journals on South Asia. They had very serious reservations on Pak-Afghan Taliban to be treated as one. They also agreed upon that as far economic relation between China and Pakistan is concerned not much has happened but at present due to the security situation there would be less commercial ventures.

The Meeting at the Division for South East Asian and Oceanian Studies with Hu Shisheng, Wang Shidaand and Lou Chunhao at China Institutes of contemporary International Relations (CICIR) was a fascinating one. They had experts, researchers on Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka etc. They were very knowledgeable regarding the FATA areas and Swat region in Pakistan. The interactions were around the Americans intentions in the region, regarding the anti terror project. They were also very keen to know about the present military operations in Swat and the government’s motives and people’s reactions. They said that China can help Pakistan much more if there is more stability. For China their ultimate goal is stability.

A lecture on Pakistan China relation and on political situation of Pakistan was organized by Transition Institute, an independent think tank where 50 participants were invited from various backgrounds and all kinds of question were raised and answered.

The delegation was also able to do some of the historical and political sightseeing which threw light on the present state of affairs in China as an emerging global power. Overall Chinese people, think tanks, organizations etc have high opinions about Pakistan, but were very concerned about the present political turmoil and the Taliban issues. They also were concerned about the American policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan which to most of them is not correct as Pakistan and Afghanistan are two different countries and have different political backgrounds; therefore lumping them together is not very wise. They also raised questions regarding Pakistan India relations.

Although with all this friendship between China and Pakistan it was very strange to find that there are very few interactions amongst NGOs students or other groups. Even there are no tourists’ visa issued on either side. Overall there should be more interaction between the civil societies, think tanks; students etc in order to understand each other. China can play a very vital role for our IDP crisis by providing assistance and capacity building to our people.

The relationship which at the moment is only between the two governments should reach out to other sections of the civil society in order to build better relations. Hopefully the contacts established by this delegation would serve as a drop in the ocean for future cooperation.