Hosting Musharraf

India might be carefully assessing the uncertain political future of Pervez Musharraf, but Beijing has no problems in laying out the red carpet for Pakistan’s President. China is so confident of its all-weather relationship with Pakistan that it is not deterred by the internal political controversies surrounding Musharraf.

Musharraf met President Hu Jintao at the annual Boao economic forum in Southern China last week, travelled to Beijing and met other top leaders including Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Beijing. Hu described the Pakistani leadership as “good friends, good partners, and good brothers”.

We do not know if “good brothers” is a new formulation on the part of China, but there was enough bonhomie all around. Musharraf called Tibet “an inalienable part of China”, and slammed the West for politicising the Olympics.

As the Uighur Muslim separatists in the Xinjiang province join the Tibetan protests, Musharraf promised full support in cracking down on terrorism. China, in turn, offered all help to Pakistan in dealing with its current economic crisis.

The writer is a professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohan@ntu.edu.sg