Pakistan: Will the attacks on the Chinese end with the recognition of the Taliban?
The funeral of one of the victims of a suicide attack targeting Chinese nationals in the Pakistani city of Gwadar, August 20, 2021. © AFP
Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
9 mins
A suicide bombing attack on a convoy of Chinese workers working in Pakistani Balochistan reportedly killed two children and injured three, including a Chinese national.
While the Chinese are regularly targeted by Pakistani separatist groups, the situation could change after Beijing recognizes Taliban power in Kabul.
Advertising
Read more
From our correspondent in Beijing,
Although neither Beijing nor Islamabad has raised a claim,
the attack on Friday August 20 that killed two children and injured three others, including a Chinese
, has indeed been claimed by a group of local insurgents:
the Balochistan Liberation Army
.
Baluchistan is at the same time one of the four great federated provinces of Pakistan, lying in the southwest of the country, on the border with
Afghanistan
and Iran.
It is also a region of Asia shared between the three countries, Iran in the West, Afghanistan in the North and in the East, this Pakistani province where the attack took place.
Several separatist groups are rife in the region, grouped under the name Baloutche Raaji Ajoi Sangar (BRAS).
Officially, the Balochistan Liberation Army is fighting against the inequitable exploitation of natural resources in this region rich in minerals and natural gas.
But for Islamabad, these are "
terrorists
" who seek independence for Balochistan.
►
See also:
Pakistan: Chinese nationals targeted by a suicide attack in Balochistan
The situation is delicate for Chinese diplomacy. China is Pakistan's ally and prefers to have Islamabad as its sole interlocutor. And then, Beijing tries to follow its policy of "
non-interference
" in the internal affairs of the countries, with its strategic reason: what is happening in Balochistan is not so far from what
is happening in the autonomous region of Xinjiang.
(West China), where Muslim Uyghur separatists, whom Beijing qualifies as “
terrorists
”, claim for their part to belong to a larger region of “
East Turkestan
”. This knowing that Xinjiang and the city of Kashgar are the starting point of the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
This threat is slowing the development of Sino-Pakistani projects.
China has invested heavily in Pakistan, including more than 40 billion euros in the deep-water port of Gwadar, 140 million euros for a new highway in this city, where a convoy of Chinese workers was
expected on Friday August 20 by a suicide bomber
, according to the spokesman for the Pakistani province.
Frequent attacks targeting Chinese projects in Pakistan
This is not the first time that an attack has targeted Chinese infrastructure projects.
Already in November 2018, an attack
on the Chinese consulate in Karachi left four dead
.
In May 2019, a luxury hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying was targeted, killing at least eight people in the establishment overlooking the port of Gwadar.
On July 14, an explosion caused a bus to fall into a ravine. The vehicle was carrying Chinese workers to the Dasu hydroelectric dam and 13 people were killed there, including nine Chinese nationals, and around 40 others were injured. At first,
the Pakistani authorities first spoke of a "
mechanical incident
"
, before changing their minds and recognizing, in the presence of a team of Chinese investigators sent on the spot, that it was indeed a question of 'a terrorist action carried out by
a local group supported by "
Indian and Afghan services
"
, according to Islamabad.
Islamabad is convinced that India and the former Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani were secretly supporting the Baluchistan separatists in revenge for Islamabad's aid to the Afghan Taliban.
Because since US President Joe Biden confirmed the withdrawal of American troops from neighboring Afghanistan, these Balochist separatist groups have launched cross-border attacks from Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Balochs having formed tactical alliances with the Pakistani branch of the Taliban.
But in the past week, the context has changed: Beijing has officially recognized the new masters of Kabul.
Chinese diplomacy then emerged from the sacrosanct doctrine of "
non-interference
"
by receiving the Taliban in Tianjin, in eastern China
, 20 days before the fall of Kabul.
With the recognition of the Taliban, an attempt to calm things down?
Beijing then demanded guarantees from the Taliban
, in particular so that the latter do not support the rebels of the East Turkestan Independence Movement (ETIM) in Xinjiang, but also that Afghanistan does not serve as a rear base for attacks against them.
"
silk Road
Chinese"
, which include the China-Pakistan economic corridor.
This concerns power stations, hydroelectric dams and highways, but also other construction sites.
In exchange for these guarantees, Beijing would have promised an extension of this corridor to Afghanistan.
Because
the Taliban need money and especially Chinese investments
.
As part of the new deal in Kabul, will China put pressure on the Pakistani ally, so as to obtain a negotiated solution between Islamabad and the Balochistan Liberation Army?
This is in order to stabilize the “New Silk Roads”, which are very important for “Made in China” exports, but also to secure the energy supplies of Chinese megalopolises.
►
To read also:
Afghanistan: how China seeks to benefit from the American withdrawal
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
China
Pakistan
Afghanistan
Taliban
Terrorism
Diplomacy
On the same subject
Afghanistan: how China seeks to profit from the American withdrawal
Pakistan: Chinese nationals targeted by suicide attack in Balochistan
Afghanistan: Pakistani diplomacy denies accusations of aid to the Taliban