NEWS REPORT / China : Pakistan :: U.S.A. : India ?

Tuesday, 21 October 2008, Late Afternoon edition
News Vs. Propaganda Report
China : Pakistan :: U.S.A. : India ?

CHINA / PAKISTAN News Update:
Will China be to Pakistan what the U.S.A. has been to India?

President Zardari, Chinese premier hold formal talks: China vows to bail out Pakistan
Full article: http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\10\17\story_17-10-2008_pg1_1
Excerpt(s): BEIJING: China vowed on Thursday to do what it could to help cash-strapped Pakistan avert financial disaster as President Asif Zardari continued an official visit aimed at rustling up crucial Chinese investments. The promise came as Premier Wen Jiabao met Zardari and said during formal talks China is ready to advance strategic co-operation with Pakistan. “As a long friend of Pakistan, China understands it is facing some financial difficulties,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters at a briefing. “We’re ready to support and help Pakistan within our capability.”... China’s massive foreign currency holdings make it a prime candidate to inject much-needed cash into Pakistan’s economy, where inflation running at 25 percent has wrecked the government’s finances and exacerbated a trade gap that is fast eating up the country’s foreign currency reserves.

No Chinese cash bailout for Pakistan, next stop IMF
Full article: http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\10\20\story_20-10-2008_pg1_2
Excerpt(s): WASHINGTON: Contrary to expectations, China has refused Pakistan the immediate cash injection of $1.5 billion to $3 billion it was seeking, leaving Islamabad no alternative but to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to a report in the New York Times on Sunday... The report also said that Saudi Arabia had refused to grant the oil facility Pakistan was seeking. State Bank Governor Shamshad Akhtar told the newspaper on Saturday, “We are very open to all kinds of financial support. We’ve taken a lot of corrective actions, and we plan to take more.”

Political expert says Pakistan wants China to do what US did for India
Full article: http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\10\20\story_20-10-2008_pg1_9
Excerpt(s):
ISLAMABAD: China has won new friends in Pakistan with its pledge to build two nuclear power plants in the energy-starved nation just weeks after rival India signed an atomic deal with the United States. The nuclear agreement comes amid strains in Pakistan’s anti-terror alliance with Washington over rising militant violence that threatens to destabilise Afghanistan... Expert: “Pakistan wanted the Chinese to do what the Americans had done for India,” said Talat Masood, a political commentator... US officials have rejected Pakistani calls for equal treatment with India. Chinese leaders “do recognise Pakistan’s need, and China is one country that at international forums has clearly spoken against the discriminatory nature” of the US-India pact, Qureshi said at a news conference. China, a major investor and arms supplier for Pakistan, shares Islamabad’s fierce regional rivalry with India. China already has helped Pakistan build a nuclear power plant at Chashma. Work on a second nuclear plant is in progress and is expected to be completed in 2011... International sanctions were slapped on Pakistan after it detonated its first nuclear charges in 1998 in response to similar tests by India. The sanctions were eased after Musharraf agreed to help Washington hunt down Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.