Asia | Stormy weather

Pakistan rolls out the red carpet for China’s prime minister

But the “all-weather strategic co-operative partnership” has hit a rough patch

Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock
|Islamabad

The suicide bomber’s video message is chilling and direct. “China, your interests are not welcome here. Your investments will be burned, your investments will not be safe,” he warns. On October 6th he struck, ramming an explosives-filled pickup truck into a convoy of Chinese workers outside the airport in Karachi. Two Chinese nationals were killed. The attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group fighting the Pakistani state—and, increasingly, Chinese interests in Pakistan.

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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Stormy weather”

From the October 19th 2024 edition

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