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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the didn't-see-that-one-coming dept.

China's 'Belt and Road' Plan in Pakistan Takes a Military Turn

When President Trump started the new year by suspending billions of dollars of security aid to Pakistan, one theory was that it would scare the Pakistani military into cooperating better with its American allies.

The reality was that Pakistan already had a replacement sponsor lined up.

Just two weeks later, the Pakistani Air Force and Chinese officials were putting the final touches on a secret proposal to expand Pakistan's building of Chinese military jets, weaponry and other hardware. The confidential plan, reviewed by The New York Times, would also deepen the cooperation between China and Pakistan in space, a frontier the Pentagon recently said Beijing was trying to militarize after decades of playing catch-up.

All those military projects were designated as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, a $1 trillion chain of infrastructure development programs stretching across some 70 countries, built and financed by Beijing.

Chinese officials have repeatedly said the Belt and Road is purely an economic project with peaceful intent. But with its plan for Pakistan, China is for the first time explicitly tying a Belt and Road proposal to its military ambitions — and confirming the concerns of a host of nations who suspect the infrastructure initiative is really about helping China project armed might.

Related: China's Xi Jinping Negotiates $46bn Superhighway to Pakistan
China Plans $503 Billion Investment in High-Speed Rail by 2020
Chinese President Xi Jinping Pledges $124 Billion for One Belt, One Road Initiative
Gunmen Attack Chinese Consulate in Pakistan


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  • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday December 28 2018, @03:52PM

    by fritsd (4586) on Friday December 28 2018, @03:52PM (#779362) Journal

    This seem to be right out of the American diplomacy playbook, you seriously didn't think all the countries that buy American military hardware do it cause they need it, want it or that it's "the best"? It's more of a protection racket really.

    Hmm.. the JSF "Joint Strike Fighter" [wikipedia.org] comes to mind..

    Later renamed to F-35 [wikipedia.org] (A bit like Windscale → Sellafield, or Monsanto → Bayer I presume).

    Trumpland's NATO allies are supposed to buy [wikipedia.org] them. Or else?

    And, it's closed source: from Wiki:

    An issue that affects all the international partners in the F-35 involves access to the computer software codes for the aircraft. The F-35 relies heavily on software for operation of radar, weapons, flight controls and also maintenance. The US military has stated that "no country involved in the development of the jets will have access to the software codes" and has indicated that all software upgrades will be done in the US. The US government acknowledges that Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey have all expressed dissatisfaction with that unilateral US decision.

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