E.g., though scarcely uninhabited,
Dipping a Chinese toe in a faraway island
Keeping to the island theme and hat tip to FP Blog story on the evolution of UN peacekeeping contributors for this surprise, with my emphasis:
Quote:
Today, China has 1,911 peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Sudan, and now Syria. The U.N. force commander in Cyprus is Chinese as well.
Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...elmets_gone#17
China rethinks its links with Pakistan
A different point if view by Raffaello Pantucci, highlighting:
Quote:
It is, however, increasingly clear that there is a high level of concern in China about Pakistan. In Xinjiang in particular they seem to have lost patience at Pakistani capacity to contain Uighur extremists travelling to train in Pakistan and then coming back.
It which ends with:
Quote:
Beijing may be Pakistan’s best friend, but even best friends can eventually lose their patience with each other.
Link:http://raffaellopantucci.com/2012/06...akistan-china/
Given the current state of Pakistan's relations with the USA primarily even a cooling of Sino-Pakistani relations could unsettle strategic thinking, after all as a nation Pakistan needs steady friends and money.