China’s Rural Cooperative Medical Care System: Miles to go

On May 30, 2011 while talking about China’s Rural Cooperative Medical Care System (RCMCS), Yao Lan, professor with the School of Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan remarked that “China has established a basic medical care system that nearly covers the whole nation in only five years. It took Germany a hundred years and the Republic of Korea 12 years to achieve the goal. China has created a record.” Yao’s statement is a bit exaggerated, as there is no comparison between the medical care systems of China and other developed economies. However, a system has been evolving in China, which is not uniform as different provinces have evolved their own medical care system, yet China can boast that the system has already covered 1.26 billion residents, or 90 percent of the total population.

Generally speaking, China has done well compared with other countries at the same stage of economic development. People are living longer and healthier lives now than sixty years ago. The average life expectancy has reached 74 years, and from 1970 to 2010, the infant mortality rate fell from 61 to 23. However, there is regional disparity and the rural health care system has raised some serious questions. China experimented its first RCMCS on August 10, 1966 from Hubei Province. The experimental health care required the peasants to pay 1 yuan per year; meanwhile, 5 jiao or ½ yuan per person was paid from the village collective public fund towards medical care. By 1968 such system was implemented throughout China. By late 1970s it is reported that 95% of the rural population benefited from cooperative health care (RDI 2006: 32).

However, after the initiation of economic reforms in 1978, and more so after the implementation of Household Responsibility System (HRS), the RCMCS was weakened with the weakening of the community organizations. This resulted in a decreased supply of rural health workers, increased burden of illnesses, disintegration of the three tier medical system, reduced primary health care, and an increased demand for hospital medical services. Since then, China is struggling to find an equitable, efficient and sustainable way of financing and organizing its rural health services.

In 2003, China started to carry out a new-type of RCMCS based on “major illness health insurance coverage” (yi dabing tongchou weizhu 以大病统筹为主). Under such a system, each farmer pays 10 yuan to a medical fund every year, with the central and local governments each contributing 10 yuan to the pool too. When a farmer receives medical treatment, he could have a certain proportion of the medical expenses refunded. By September 2005, the system had spread to 671 counties covering 233 million rural dwellers accounting 26.30% of rural population, and a total of 6.49 billion yuan had been paid in to 82.66 million farmers (RDI, 2006:33). By the end of September 2006, the system had been extended to 1,433 counties, which accounted for 50.1 percent of the China’s total.  A survey report carried out on People’s Daily online edition on January 24, 2007 showed that the rural families were reimbursed 25.7 percent of their total medical expenses, with an average refund of 731 yuan (about 91 U.S. dollars). The survey polled 19,195 rural families in 32 counties of 17 provinces. The survey also showed that 90 percent of families who participated in the system were willing to stay in the system. From 2007 onward, the Chinese government has decided to double government allowances of 20 yuan (2.5 U.S. dollars) this year for each farmer participating in the RCMCS. In addition, China plans to extend the scope of current trials to 1,145, or 40 percent of its counties in 2007. The Chinese government has pledged to invest more than 30 billion yuan (3.85 billion U.S. dollars) to improve its rural medical care network during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006- 2010).

From the government policies towards RCMCS, it could be discerned that the system has following main characteristics. One, the government intends to build a three tier medical care network involving the counties, towns and villages. The purpose behind such a system is realizing the goal of “curing minor ailments at village level, serious ailments at town level, and chronic ailments at county level” (xiaobing buchu cun, dabing buchu xiang, zhongbing buchu xian 小病不出村，大病不出乡，重病不出县). Two, the RCMCS is based on “major illness health insurance coverage” implying that the more serious the disease, more reimbursements you expect. Three, as regards the policy, the RCMCS is inclined towards curing illness at town and township level health centers or hospitals. The policy stipulates that the rural people who treat themselves for ailments in township and town hospitals, the reimbursement would be greater than those curing aliments in county hospitals. Four, the cooperative medical care fund would be set up with the funds originating from individual peasants, local and central governments.

Luochuan County in Shanxi Province was one of the counties that implemented the RCMCS early on. By the end of 2004, 80% peasants had participated in the RCMCS. In 2005 the provincial government decided to reduce the amount of self payment by peasants for township, county and beyond hospitalization to 100 yuan, 300 yuan and 600 yuan respectively. If the amount exceeds this bottom line, the peasants would be reimbursed 60% if the treatment is carried at township; 50% if it is at county level and 40% above county level. Even though a certain percentage gets reimbursed from the RCMCS Fund, but it has been found during my field investigations in China that to see a doctor, it is still a nightmarish experience for any peasant. Dujiangyan City in Sichuan Province has evolved its own system since it initiated the pilot RCMCS in 2003. Peasants joining the RCMCS hold a “Family Outpatient Account” FOA (jiating menzhen zhanghu 家庭门诊账户). Peasants joining the RCMCS have to pay 10 yuan, but 15 yuan would be entered in their FOA. While seeing a doctor, the peasant only needs to show his FOA and can even get a treatment for minor disease. A family of three would have a 45 yuan FOA that would enable them to see a doctor at township and town level from 4 to 5 times.

The scholars at Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing are of the view that the RCMCS so far has not been able to resolve the basic issue of peasants difficulty in seeing or consulting a doctor. The major problem of the RCMCS is that guarantee levels are very low, for the amount paid by the peasants towards their ailment is still very large and it would be difficult for many to pay the amount. Therefore, many in the countryside would still be forced to “drag on with minor disease and wait death with chronic disease” (xiaobing kangzhe, dabing dengsi 小病扛着，大病等死), for the RCMCS is purely based on “major illness health insurance coverage.” According to a recent report some 3.7 million Chinese people (85% of all deaths) die each year before the age of 60 due to chronic diseases. Many peasants have expressed that since serious diseases are developed from minor diseases, why not to nip the problem in the bud? At this point the government not extending the coverage for all diseases has been attributed to the paucity of funds. The officials agree that there is a scope to make the RCMCS relevant to all sorts of ailments, but that could be possible with the increase of rural income and raising more funds for the purpose.

According to a report published by Xinhua on July 11, 2008, a total of 804 million rural residents had joined the system as of the end of March 2008, accounting for 91.05 percent of the rural population. Quoting Mao Qun’an, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, the report says that RCMCS has expanded to 2,679 counties, county-level cities and city districts, covering approximately 98.17 percent of the country’s rural areas. The government is hopeful that the system would cover all rural areas by the end of 2008. As regards the pool funds, at present, it has been raised to 100 yuan, with a split of 20 yuan from the participant and 80 yuan from the governments. However, provinces in the middle and western parts of China failed to meet the standard, mainly because individuals in poverty-stricken areas hadn’t increased their participation. Lack of government investments has long been the major cause for the country’s poor medical care system.

As China’s economic juggernaut continues to roll on, it has been able to pump more money to the medical care system. According to wang Jun, Vice Minister of Finance, China invested 1.13 trillion yuan in improving the medical care system during 2009-2011, 284.2 billion yuan more than the original budget. It also raised the ratio of the medical care spending in fiscal expenditure to 5.35 percent in 2011, up from 4.57 percent in 2008. However, irrespective of the fast economic development, China still has a long way to go to establish a high-standard medical care system. There is still huge gap between the rural and urban medical care systems. During the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period, China is aiming to reduce individual’s shares of total medical expenditures to less than 30 percent, and perfect the medical care system by the year 2020, till then we will have to wait and watch.

References:

RDI (Rural Development Institute) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, comp. (2006) 农村经济绿皮书2005-2006年：中国农村经济形势分析与预测 (Green Book of Chin’s Rural Economy 2005-2006: Analysis and Forecast on China’s Rural Economy). Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing.

Asia’s Race in Africa: What it holds for India?

As India and China establish themselves as the two poles of world economic growth, they have started to influence the growth patterns in many countries, and the African continent is no exception. Interestingly, there are strong possibilities that Africa will emerge as yet another pole of world economic growth given the size of its huge market and natural resources. This has also lead the Asian giants to scramble for markets in the African continent, billionairefinancier George Soros has even pronounced these countries as "Africa's new colonialists" who he said were "exploiting the world's poorest continent in the same way as its old European masters." This may be an exaggeration, however, the Asian race in Africa is for real, and has been reflected in the so called India-Africa and China-Africa summits. This also demonstrates that India and China would like to forge partnership with Africa and handle this partnership with utmost care owing to latter’s huge economic and political capital. The probability of a successful partnership especially for India appears possible as African countries have many things in common with India. It is here that India can play a vital role in ‘capacity building’ as pronounced by the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the second India-Africa Forum Summit on May 24, 2011 in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. The first Summit was held in April 2008in New Delhi.

In Addis Ababa, the Indian Prime Minister announced that "India will continue to support efforts at infrastructure development, regional integration, capacity building and human resources development in Africa." To this effect India promised 5 billion US dollars for the next three years for Africa’s infrastructure development and 700 million US dollars to establish institutions and training programs. Many experts view these summits as a move to catch up with China’s influence in that region and answering India’s impending quest for energy security. It may be recalled that China initiated similar summits with Africa since 2006 in Beijing; the second China-Africa summit was held in 2009 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. During the summit China pledged 10 billion dollars in aid to the African countries and canceled an accumulated 2.8 billion US dollars of debt for 35 African countries. The Chinese investment in Africa is estimated to be around 10 billion US dollars.

India has a historical relationship with Africa, especially during the post-colonial period. The very concept of non-cooperation and civil disobedience by Mahatma Gandhi was experimented in Africa itself during the late 19th century. However, the relationship swung from a period of great emotional and political solidarity in the 1950s and 1960s to selective engagement in the 1970s and 1980s. If we carefully analyze the Delhi Declaration issued at the close of April 2008 Summit, it is clear that India has diversified and fine-tuned its policies in political, security related, economic, science and technology, human resource development, social, cultural and other areas of mutual interest. This is a strategic partnership that would be based on the fundamental principles of equality and mutual respect. This is evident from the establishment of the 3 Africa Divisions since 2003 by the Ministry of External Affairs, India.

As regards Africa’s place in world economy, India firmly believes that like India and China, Africa is yet another "engine of world economic growth". If we talk about Africa’s integration into the global economy, it obviously includes various aspects of the globalization process, such as trade, industrialization, FDI and capital flows. A resource rich Africa is already having 108 billion dollar trade with China and 45 billion dollar with India and over 50 billion with the ASEAN. Both India and China have heavily invested in Africa’s energy resources, infrastructure development, telecommunications and mining.

In 2007, India invested $13.6 billion abroad, of which 2.3 billion has gone into Africa. The trade and investment from two of the world’s fastest growing economies going to Africa could significantly facilitate Africa’s integration into the global economy and must be translated into greater growth in Africa. If we look at the Asia- Africa trade, Africa’s primary commodity exports to Asia account for 86% of its total exports to Asia. Its processed imports, including manufactured products and food products, account for 80% of its total imports from Asia. In other words Africa provides natural comparative advantage on raw materials and resource-based products.

Since the first India-Africa summit in New Delhi in 2008, trade between the two partners has increased substantially. As regards India’s quest for energy security, yes, energy security is an essential and very important component of India-Africa partnership, for the African light crude oil, and gas account for 12% and 8% of the global oil and gas reserves. Presently 30 percent of India‘s energy needs are met by oil, with 70 percent of oil supply being imported. Much of the remaining 70 percent of energy demand is met by domestic coal reserves. If the reports of the International Energy Agency are to be believed, it is estimated that in order to maintain and sustain its current growth trajectory of 8% per annum, India will have to increase its energy consumption by at least by 3.6 percent annually, implying that if India’s energy demand would be doubled by 2025 and it would import 90 percent of its petroleum supply. Seen in this light, the India-Africa energy security becomes an important component of India-Africa relations.

As far as rules of engagements in Africa are concerned India and China have adopted equally divergent strategies. If China has adopted the model of ‘vertical integration’, India had gone for ‘horizontal integration’ with the African economies. It is true that by relying on government backing and economic strength, Chinese companies are often able to outbid competitors for procuring contracts from local governments. However, most of the Indian firms in Africa are either privately owned or under mixed private-public ownership. They are less vertically integrated, and engage in far more sales to private African enterprises.

The Indian government is also actively supporting Indian businesses in Africa through various government institutionssuch as the Export-Import Bank of India, FICCI, CII; it has been providing soft loans, cheap generic drugs and market access to goods from Least Developed African countries into India on nominal tariff rates. The case of Indian pharmaceutical companies doing business in Africa is such an example. Ranbaxy, has provided reasonably priced medicines, particularly Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, to several African countries including Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia. Cipla  another Indian pharmaceutical giant, provides HIV/AIDS drugs to 1 in 3 patients in Africa.

The ‘horizontal integration’ model may not have won many projects for the Indian companies,but has certainly earned enormous goodwill for India in Africa. There are asymmetries in the economic relations between Asia and Africa. For example,  though the African export to Asia account for 25% of its global exports, it accounts only 1.6% of its global trade. Secondly, Africa’s FDI in Asia is abysmal; thirdly, African textile and apparel industry is competing with the extremely competitive Chinese and Indian textile industries globally. Therefore, it becomes imperative that the South-South economic relationship address asymmetries. Some of the measures could be reduction in tariffs on Africa’s leading exports; helping Africa in strengthening its basic market institutions, and governance; Sectoral capacity building is vital. For example, Africa’s large imports of diamonds from India could be processed in Africa itself by inviting Indian investment in this sector instead of importing processed diamonds from India. Also, Africa needs to be integrated with the global value-chain.
For example, cotton exports from Africa are increasingly being complemented by intermediate materials, say fabrics supplied by the Asean countries to apparel producers in Africa.Politically too, Africa is equally relevant to India as sub-Saharan Africa holds over 50 seats in the UN Security Council. Both have reiterated that there is need for urgent and comprehensive reform of the United Nations, in particular, the expansion of the UN Security Council, in both permanent and non-permanent categories of membership. India would also like to bolster diplomatic and security presence in Africa. The anti-piracy patrols in the key shipping routes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean since 2008 are pointers in this direction. The routine India-Africa summits will definitely make this relationship healthier and stronger, equally important for India is to engage individual African countries at various levels and forge even closer ties with them.

Taiwan’s Flexible Diplomacy: A New Approach to Cross-Strait and International Relations

In a video conferencing with the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on May 12, 2011, President Ma Ying-jeou of the Republic of China (ROC) Taiwan outlined three important national strategies for Taiwan: one,  institutionalizing cross-strait rapprochement with mainland China; two, enhancing Taiwan’s contributions to international development; and three, aligning Taiwan’s defense and diplomacy. These could be termed as the three pillars or the ‘defense lines’ as president Ma call them of Taiwanese new foreign policy ever since he took office in 2008. Why has Taiwan initiated such a policy?

At the outset between the year 2000 and 2008, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) under the presidency of Chen Shuibian advocated stronger Taiwan identity, vociferously advocated Taiwan’s Independence, and sought Taiwan’s membership to various United Nation organizations. In turn, China adopted Anti-Secession Law in 2005; enhanced and strengthened its military deployment against Taiwan; and unequivocally reiterated the use of force against the renegade province. In the process, it enhanced the precision strike capability of hundreds of missiles of the Second Artillery Force (SAF) that has been assigned to attack strategic targets inside Taiwan.

The period under Chen could be categorized as the period of confrontation with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and of extending doles to various African and Latin American countries for maintaining their affiliation to the ROC. The policy won ROC three diplomatic allies, but lost 9 including Costa Rica to the PRC; the ‘cheque diplomacy’ proved disastrous, and the first thing Ma Ying-jeou did after resuming office was to abandon this policy and initiate a policy of readjustment introducing the ‘flexible diplomacy’ or the so called huoyue waijiao, which calls for political reconciliations. 

Under ‘flexible diplomacy’ Taiwan sought diplomatic truce and opportunities to participate in international organizations and events. The truce called for consolidation of ties with its 23 diplomatic allies across Pacific, Europe and Africa, while the latter offered it opportunities to participate in rehabilitation work in Ache and Haidi etc. earthquakes; it also secured the observer’s status in World Health Assembly (WHA) of the WHO since 2009.  In fact the “three-no’s” policy toward cross-strait relations: “no unification, no independence, and no use of force” could be regarded as an important ingredient of the ‘diplomatic truce’ under ‘flexible diplomacy.’ this approach of handling the cross-strait affairs in Ma’s words would create a “virtuous cycle.” It has indeed created a “virtuous cycle” in terms of increased trade and investment with the PRC, expanded educational and cultural exchange, and eased visa regimes across the straits. Between 2008 and 2011 Taiwan and mainland China have concluded 15 agreements including the landmark Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). The flexible diplomacy was the need of the hour, which enabled Taiwan to avoid trade and economic marginalization; criticism from the domestic public opinion, as well as further jettisoning of the cross-strait relations.  According to President Ma, the arrival of nearly 3million mainland Chinese has created a tourism boom in Taiwan.  There are at present over 5000 mainland Chinese students studying in Taiwan universities. The increase in cross-strait trade also boosted Taiwan’s total trade volume to a record high of $526 billion in 2010.

As far as Taiwan’s foreign aid policy is concerned, it was changed substantially, and the May 2009 White Paper on Foreign Aid Policy is a pointer in this direction.  The so-called ‘cheque diplomacy’ paved way for a foreign aid policy that is in line with the international standards. With an aim to promote partnership, Taiwan has committed to be a responsible stakeholder in the international community by supporting humanitarianism and safeguarding human security. It has contributed to disaster relief efforts around the world and is the largest donor so far to Japan’s Tohoku earthquake relief effort. Taiwan has also diversified the modes of aid and cooperation in to the GIS, hospital management, environmental protection, as well as renewable energy etc. fields. President Ma is of the view that such efforts will help Taiwan reach a higher moral ground in international politics.

The third strategy that President Ma pronounced during the video conferencing is ‘to align defense with diplomacy.’ In this respect he said that Taiwan must build credibility and trust with its allies but also be able to defend itself. Rebuilding of mutual trust especially with its strongest ally, the US has remained on top of President Ma’s priorities for it almost touched the nadir during Chen Shuibian’s time. DPP’s irritating PRC tactics and Chen seeking transit opportunities in the US and other countries for his foreign visits irritated Washington, which ill afforded any trouble with the PRC in AF-Pak region. The US has expressed its happiness over the ‘flexible diplomacy’ and has announced arms sales  worth  6.4 billion US dollars to Taiwan albeit the delivery is still awaited. Furthermore, Taiwanese request for F-16C/D has been received positively by the US but so far has been stalled due to obvious pressure from the mainland. Nevertheless, the US is going to act in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and is obligated to provide defensive weapon systems to Taiwan, for it is aware of the fact that a weaker Taiwan will damage the stability in Asia Pacific; increase undue pressure on Taiwan and its allies. It is in this context that president Ma has asked the United States to help “level the playing field” by providing weaponry to keep Taiwan’s aerial and naval integrity intact.

There is yet another dimension to the flexible diplomacy of Taiwan, which Present Ma did not pronounce in his interview to the CSIS - the people to people and cultural diplomacy. The policy has provided Taiwanese citizen and NGOs various opportunities to participate in international affairs and exchange ideas with foreign civil societies. Under the aegis of this policy, Taiwan has initiated various programs such as national development seminars for youths, international youth ambassador program, Taiwan scholarships and fellowship, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Huayu Enrichment Program and Taiwan Study Camps, International Cooperation and Development Fund’s (ICDF) Mandarin Scholarship etc. programs. All these initiatives have helped Taiwan to boost its image internationally and enabled international community to have a better understanding of Taiwan, its culture customs and values.

The flexible diplomacy has worked well for all the stakeholders so far. Low profile, gentle giant Ma will add another feather to his cap if he is successful in concluding confidence building measures (CBMs) and cross-strait peace agreements. President Ma has repeatedly called on the PRC to dismantle over a thousand missiles that have been targeted on Taiwan's cities, and we have heard Xu Caihou, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, PRC saying that it is possible if a peace agreement is signed between the two sides.

Osama bin Laden, Pakistan and China

The most-wanted fugitive and dreaded terrorist, Osama bin Laden was killed on the 2^nd May  2011 by the elite US Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, a stone’s throw from the Pakistan Military Academy, and over 100 kilometers away from Pakistani capital city Islamabad. The very presence of bin Laden in the heart and most secured place in Pakistan has greatly strained its ties with the United States; the latter has lost some if not all the trust it has reposed on Pakistan in fight against global terrorism. In an interview to CBS's  “60 Minutes” a week after bin Laden’s killing, the US president Barrack Obama said, “We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was.”  Furthermore, he said “We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate.” Fingers are being pointed out to the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which is known for its contacts with various terror outfits including the al Qaeda and Haqqani network. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has admitted in ABC's “This Week” program that Pakistan had “many Jihadi has-beens from the 1980s who are still alive and well and kicking, and some of them could have been helping them, but they are not in the state or government of Pakistan today.” Congressman Dana Rohrabacher even introduced the “Defund US Assistance to Pakistan Act of 2011” in the House of Representative and said that the US “can no longer afford this foolishness….The time has come for us to stop subsidizing those who actively oppose us. Pakistan has shown itself not to be America's ally.”

Pakistan has turned to China in every crisis, and this time again Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani will also rush to China next week on a four-day visit starting from 17^th May. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Jiang Yu confirmed this and described China and Pakistan as “good neighbors, friends, partners and brothers.” On 9^th May 2011 during an address to the Pakistan parliament, Gilani hailed China as Pakistan’s “all weather friend” and also absolved the ISI from sheltering the al Qaeda fugitive. He praised China as a “source of inspiration” and warned the United States that Pakistan reserves the right to “retaliate with full force” in case of a similar US operation in the future.  China is perhaps the only country that has supported the Pakistani ignorance about the whereabouts of bin Laden albeit hailed the Laden killing as a “major event and a positive development in the international struggle against terrorism.” Jiang Yu further said that “Pakistan stands at the forefront of the international struggle against terrorism….Pakistani government’s determination to fight terrorism are staunch and its actions have been vigorous. Pakistan has made important contributions to the international struggle against terror.” She also said that China will continue to support Pakistan staunchly in developing and implementing its own anti-terror strategy based on its own national conditions. Experts of international relations in China also toed the government line as usual. Guo Xiangang, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies stated that Laden's death and any rift between the United States and Pakistan will not affect Beijing's policies toward Islamabad. And why not, when Pakistan has been secretly sharing some of the advanced military technology to China, be it the 1998 transfer of an unexploded American Tomahawk missile or the F-16s. It has been reported that China has once again shown interest in the debris of the crashed SEAL helicopter in Abbottabad raid.

Not only the Chinese government has rendered support to the Pakistan in the aftermath of bin Laden’s killing but the netizens across China has also toed the government line. Shen Weihuang quoted a survey in an article published in the Global Times on May 10, 2011 which revealed that 60% of the 500,000 people who took an online survey conducted by Hong Kong based Phoenix television, agreed with the statement that bin Laden's death was a sad event because “he was an anti-US warrior.” More than 75% of the 17,000 respondents thought the US would get tougher on China after Bin Laden’s death.  Global Times wrote on May 5, 2011 in one of the commentaries that “the counter-terrorism war, mainly in the Arab world, has served to prevent the US from ‘disturbing’ China during the past decade…. In the near future, the US may pour more money and resources in handling the rise of China.” Some netizens in various forums also expressed their views on Laden issue. To quote a few from sina.com posted in Chinese: “We believe that there is some support within the United States for bin Laden network, though we do not know who is supporting the network, we do not know if any US government official is supporting the network or not, otherwise 9.11 would not have happened at all.” Another wrote, “Pakistan helped the US in counter-terrorism, but after finishing the task, it has been blaming Pakistan for sheltering [terrorists], disgusting! Yet another wrote, “The US sending forces inside Pakistan territory to kill people is an act of a terrorist, gangster and a thug combined!” American logic is the logic of a gangster, Pakistan! You hold on, China is behind you. It is useless to shed tears in international arena, there is no justice to talk of, national interests are supreme, and if you do not wield power you have no right to speech” wrote another. “The US politics of power and hegemony demonstrates that in order to serve its own interests, the US will achieve these by hook or crook showing utter disregards for others” announced another. There are others who expressed their fears about Pakistan being used by the US for battering China. “Pakistan has allowed the foreign troops to operate in its own territory freely; this is surrendering one’s sovereign rights under humiliating terms! China must be vigilant, or else one day, the U.S. forces in Pakistan could attack China as well without the knowledge of Pakistan, it would be a grave problem” jotted another netizen.

As far as India is concerned, India has always maintained that like bin Laden, other dreaded terrorists have also found sanctuary in Pakistan. Some of the most wanted terrorist such the mastermind of the 26.11 Mumbai attack and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, the principal accused in the 2001 Parliament attack who was released in exchange of hostages in the Kandahar hijack episode in 1999, and the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, responsible for the 1991 Bombay bomb blasts have all found shelter in Pakistan. These have been used by Pakistan as assets against India and have rendered them protection. When asked if China would ask Pakistan to transfer the killers involved in Mumbai attack by a reporter to Jiang Yu, she said, “We uphold principles of non-interference in other's internal affairs. Chinese government will continue to support Pakistan in formulating and implementing anti-terrorist activities based on its national conditions.” We have seen that how the Chinese press absolved Pakistan from 26.11 Mumbai attacks and blamed it on some Hindu fundamentalists as Kasab and others were supporting the Hindu sacred thread on their wrists. If we analyze the Chinese news for domestic consumption, we would see that it has always supported the stand of Pakistan irrespective of its brazen involvement whether it was the reportage of the Kargil, attack on the Indian parliament or the Mumbai attacks in Chinese media.

This is primarily because China does not recognize the thesis of cross-border terrorism, especially in south Asian context.  China must not forget that it has equally diverse nationalities that account for 8.49% of the population and inhabit 64% of the total land area of China, particularly, Xinjiang that borders 8 countries including India. The stability in the region according to the Chinese government has been endangered by the forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism as well as narcotic smuggling. China is aware of the Trans border nationalism and its effects in Xinjiang. According to Chinese sources, there are over 50 East Turkestan separatist organizations in Xinjiang; and between 1990 and 2001 there have been 360 terror incidents causing 162 causalities and injuring over 440 people. The activities of Eastern Turkestan Movement before and after the Olympics are well known, especially the July 5^th 2009 Urmuqi violence that rendered 197 dead and 1700 injured. As far as extremism or religious fundamentalism is concerned, China so far has blamed the pan Islamic religious fundamentalism emanating from Uzbekistan, Kirghizstan, and Tajikistan for armed smuggling, supporting East Turkestan Liberation Organization and creating instability and extremism in Xinjiang. It is mum on Pakistan albeit has admitted since 2001 that al Qaeda was in hand and glove with the Xinjiang ‘terrorists’. The recent wikiLeaks Gitmo files also show that China’s “all whether friend” indeed provided training grounds to Uighur separatists. Amongst the hundreds of Taliban, there were 22 Uighurs detainees at Guantanamo, many of whom were captured in Pakistan. Hasan Mahsum, the founder of “East Turkistan Islamic Movement” was killed in Pakistan in 2003. It was reported in Pakistani press recently that a few weeks before Osama’s death, al Qaida appointed a new commander of its Pakistan forces and training camps, Abdul Shakoor Turkistani, the chief of the Turkistani Islamic Party created in 2008 with an aim to carry out Jihad in Xinjiang. Another problem that China has faced in Xinjiang is that of narcotic smuggling from Afghanistan. In 2004 during the “The Struggle for Banning Narcotics in the Silk Route Countries” conference, a UN official revealed that almost 60%-70% of the Afghanistan narcotics are exported and transported through the Silk route countries, and Xinjiang was one of the very important transit points.  It has been revealed by China that between 2000 and 2005 China captured 6284 Xinjiang drug peddlers from Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan, Guangdong etc. 13 provinces and cities.

Therefore, China must stop looking terrorism with Pakistani prism not only inside Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also must be cautious in supporting Pakistan playing a dominant role in Afghanistan in the wake of prospective hasty American withdrawal from this war ravaged country after bin laden’s death, for it is obvious that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have been blamed for encouraging and funding the extremism in India as well as in Afghanistan.  No one denies Pakistan’s stakes in Afghanistan, but so has India, China and many other countries. All the stakeholders have vested interests in Afghanistan's stability, not to encircle Pakistan. Instability both in Pakistan and Afghanistan will have disastrous effects not only in South Asia, but also in China, especially Xinjiang. Therefore, it is pertinent that we have a regional approach to Afghanistan involving all the stakeholders such as China, Russia, Iran, India and Pakistan as well as the Central Asian countries. Moreover, it is for Afghanistan to decide what sort of alignment it would like to have in place, so as the stability is maintained and guaranteed.