Diplomatic Bubbles: Chinese getting up and close to Pakistan’s spy networks

Chinese getting up and close to Pakistan’s spy networks 

Saeed Minhas

http://thespokesman.pk/index.php/history/item/6327-chinese-getting-up-and-close-to-pakistan-s-spy-networks

ISLAMABAD: China’s emergence in a post-2014 exit of NATO forces from Afghanistan has become all the more important these days, especially when the diplomatic corps in Islamabad believe that Chinese are not only involved deeply in Pakistan’s strategic planning, but even in their spy network.

It is not the first time that Chinese are being discussed so vigorously by the Western diplomats. When the news of transferring civil nuclear technology between the two countries was leaked through a Washington-based newspaper, the hype had much more negative connotation attached to it as compared to a similar deal reached between India and US just a few months back.
If I may recall my conversation with one of the top military officials during hey-days of Gen. Musharraf, Chinese were already involved with the Pakistan’s top spy network, ISI. Reason was nothing but the Uyghur uprising in its western province of Xinjiang and Chinese intelligence had brought up some irrefutable evidence blaming Pakistan for not controlling their militants from crossing the border into China and orchestrating the riots. The riots actually took a new dimension in 2009 when even the western media pounced on it to screw the Chinese by declaring it a revolt against the mainland China. Reports from the Chinese visiting dignitaries, though they always prove a hard nut to crack when it comes to talking on strategic issues, was that China have to work closely with the Pakistani establishment to ensure not only its own interests but that of Pakistan too. They believe Pakistan’s ping-pong policy with US is quite upsetting for the Chinese top leadership.
A recent delegation from the Chinese security agencies, just before the arrival of the new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to Pakistan in May, had almost a similar story where Chinese preferred to monitor the entire security of their dignitaries themselves than leaving it solely in the hands of world known agencies of Pakistan.
A Western diplomat, only on condition of anonymity, revealed that the entire telecom traffic in Pakistan is very closely being monitored by the Chinese. He said that though the entire media and he agreed that for all the right reasons is hell bent to prove Snowden leaks as Watergate of Obama, but whenever this facet of Chinese spying on Pakistanis will come to open, it will prove even a bigger scam. He, however, avoided the issue of UAE based company doing the same for Americans in Pakistan by saying that Americans have many more ways of doing that then just relying on a Gulf company.
Our insiders in the establishments revealed that they see hardly any problem in working with the Chinese as compared to westerners. After hours of discussions with the insiders, one can glean the simple fact that no matter how involved Chinese become in their strategic maneuvering, they hardly mind it. Trust gap, however, between the Americans and Pakistani establishment has not gone anywhere. The reasons as they put it are simple.
 Pakistani establishment could hardly escape itself from the onslaught of 60 international warrior nations fighting a unanimously lost war against extremists, fundamentalists and insiders in Afghanistan for being part of all their problems. The suspicion about Pakistani involvement in aiding and abetting Taliban and Haqqani Networks associated with remnants of Al-Qeda has always been there ever since the invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11. Wikileaks just brought those suspicions of Americans Ambassadors and commanders in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the fore to prove that Americans just do not want to share any intelligence with Pakistan military. With several ups and downs, there had been a phase spanning over three years after 2006 that even the communication lines stopped working between the two sides. Not only communication but even coalition support funds remained stuck for years. The mantra of ‘do more’ from Washington, meanwhile, remained the only constant throughout these years.
Despite the fact that every visiting American dignitary including the diplomacy queen Hilary Clinton make it a point to tell Pakistani people through their heavily sponsored media that “Americans will not leave Pakistan in a lurch this time”, Pakistani establishment seem to believe not even an scrap of such statements. One senior official even pulled out a newspaper showing me that Americans have scrapped worth US $ 7 billion vehicles and military equipment in Afghanistan instead of handing it over to Afghan National Army; whom they want us to believe have been trained to perfection by NATO. A retired official speaking on this topic was of the view that Americans did the same with Pakistan when they ultimately triggered the infamous Ojhri incident towards the fag end of Ziaul Haq.
He recalled that he was in charge of an assignment when Americans packed their bags and decided to leave instantly after the downfall of USSR; to collect every single bullet and machine used by Pakistanis throughout Jihad days. Instead of handing them over to their loyal servant of 1980s-Jihad, Americans sent a team of senior Generals to witness the destruction of everything in front of their eyes near Kala-Chitta (Black and white) mountains; situated close to Tarnol terminals of NATO supplies in Rawalpindi. Witnessing the fireworks from a distant camp, American Generals were still not happy because they thought that some of their stingers are still missing, he recalled with a visible anguish written all over his wrinkled face.