Cover Story 
 

Cover Story

Dragon, Eagle, Markhor, and Chikor:
A Triangular Square or Hexagon?

Peaceful Co-Existence,
Progressive Evolution

Inevitably, Pakistan’s future relations with China and the USA will remain a continuing challenge.

By Senator (r) Javed Jabbar | September 2025


To enable more balance in the asymmetries of territory, population, economic scale, military capacity, et al between, on the one hand, China and the USA, and on the other, Pakistan --- the trio that makes the triangle --- the first two states are symbolized in this issue of SouthAsia Magazine by their respective single symbols.

Dragon --- fire, thunder, power. Eagle: telescopic eyesight, steely talons.

Here, a Pakistani writer takes the liberty of using two natural national icons instead of only one to make the triangle into a symmetrical square—for just the few minutes it will take to survive reading this reflection. (Note: As will be evident at the end of this piece, two more icons will need to be added to the four to make for an unavoidable hexagon of six.)

Markhor and Chikor
The markhor is the most magnificent creature of the larger goat family. With excellent eyesight and hearing, strong horns twisting like snakes reaching up to 160 cms (60 inches in height), sturdy of build, agile of foot, able to climb steep, rugged slopes. While always ready to fight for the right to breed, the male is solitary by nature, and, like all good conservatives, sports a long, heavy beard. By contrast, the chikor is highly gregarious and sociable, with colourful plumage, distinctive red beak and legs, intricate markings on wings, fast take-offs and nimble landings between elegant flights, and, like the markhor, adept at survival in rocky and arid habitats. It emits its own frequent, sustained musical chirps and shows resilience and adaptability to challenging conditions and environments.

Together, they make for a couple as unique as the country that has chosen them as its insignia.

Historical Diplomatic Strengths
In 2025, when Pakistan faces new uncertainties with an unpredictable Donald Trump-led USA --- presently seemingly favourably inclined to Pakistan --- and a congenitally hostile Hindutva-driven India (though the majority of India’s people are not hate-driven), the country can draw strength and confidence in its capacity to manage positive relations with both China and the USA going by its 78-year history of astute diplomacy. Given the propensity of some to forever bemoan our failures all around, including in foreign policy, and label us as mere tools of US interests, it is essential to remember that Pakistan has achieved and sustained a remarkable ability to conduct close relations with Communist China while also managing erratic yet generally close relations with a perennially anti-Communist USA ---through almost eighty years of global and regional turbulence.

Soon after urgently requesting the USA in October 1947 for aid and grants to deal with a dire need for funds --- aggravated by India’s breach of the pre-Independence agreement on a fair, prompt transfer of resources from New Delhi to Karachi --- we became the first Muslim state to extend diplomatic recognition to the newly-born People’s Republic of China in May 1951, established less than two years earlier on 1st October 1949.

While we gradually adjusted to severe internal political and unrivalled logistical challenges, we also entered into two new security pacts. These were specifically aimed at containing real or imagined threats to our partner countries from Communism and Communist states. They were the 1954 Baghdad Pact which became CENTO (Central Treaty Organization) in 1955 (with Turkey, Iran, UK, and Iraq, that left soon after) as also SEATO, the 1955 South East Asian Treaty Organization (with the USA, France, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand --- and Pakistan, being the only country from South Asia to join a South East Asian security treaty). We also concluded a Mutual Defence Agreement with the USA in 1954.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy meeting with President Mohammad Ayub Khan on July 13, 1961.


Capacity for Balance
Reflective of our ability to take a balanced approach, we then negotiated a mutually beneficial Border Agreement with China in March 1963, even withstanding American displeasure --- without losing ground. In April 1964, we became the first non-Communist state to establish a regular aerial link with China through PIA. Pakistan’s diplomatic dexterity was built upon the solid foundations of enlightened principles articulated so robustly by the country’s first Foreign Minister (for six years, December 1947-October 1954), Sir Zafarullah Khan (whose name and photograph are curiously absent from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which otherwise features all other Foreign Ministers. Is this a bizarre symptom of the anti-Ahmedi syndrome?)

Over the past decades, whether as foreign ministers, ambassadors, senior officials at the UN, and other global multilateral bodies, Pakistan’s diplomats in political and other fields, including the environment and disarmament, have demonstrated an acumen widely acknowledged by other nations. Despite our close ties with the West, we were one of the first, and remained throughout, among the most active opponents to the imposition of Israel on Palestinian lands, to the apartheid regime in South Africa, to lingering remnants of colonialism around the world.

In other contexts as well, we withstood intense pressure from certain close fellow Muslim states in the Middle East and the Gulf to send Pakistani troops into regional conflicts which occurred in past decades --- even as the same states to which we said gentle yet firm “ No “, invited senior Pakistani officers to advise and train their own cadres, sent their officers to our military academies for training, even appointed a Pakistani as the Naval Chief of Bahrain, and, in another continent, in a non-Muslim state in Africa like Zimbabwe, as the Head of its Air Force.

Not to forget that ace Pakistani pilots shot down Israeli planes for Syria in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Though peace-keeping troops on the ground do not themselves play a direct diplomatic role, the fact is that Pakistan ranks among the top 2 or 3 countries that provide the largest number of peacekeepers for UN operations in conflict areas around the world. Pakistani forces are respected for their neutrality and professional capability, with many dozens sacrificing their lives while rendering their duties. Thus, in peace and in war, through diplomacy and in armed action, our country has proven extraordinary versatility.


Trust and respect
Earlier, aptly, both the USA and China trusted and respected Pakistan’s capacity to arrange, in top secrecy, the visit of the American National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, to Beijing via Rawalpindi in June 1971. That visit, facilitated by Pakistan for two states otherwise publicly extremely hostile to each other, began a tectonic shift in global geopolitical relations.

On May 27, 1976, Chairman Mao Zedong met visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto during the latter’s visit to Beijing. It was the last time that Mao met with a foreign guest during his lifetime.


Punching Below Weight
Now, in the third decade of the 21st century, while many factors and conditions have changed, and with India emerging as a major regional, and even, in some respects, a globally relevant entity, and with Pakistan beset with enormous economic and political challenges, is there scope for the country to shape a policy of stability that benefits all three countries? Based on the experience of the previous 78 years, notwithstanding various ups and downs, be they vis-à-vis Afghanistan or the USA’s self-driven reluctance to support Pakistan’s just stand on Kashmir, the answer would be affirmative, not least because the country is one of only nine countries that possess nuclear weapons among 193 member-states of the UN. And the only state in South Asia that deters hegemonically inclined India from continuing its predatory tendency.

It is not just that, despite being a nuclear-weapon state, we punch far below our weight. We also happen to be the world’s fifth most populous nation, soon to become the fourth largest, even if we reduce our growth rate to below 2.5 per cent. Our primary goal must be to develop our vast human resources, especially our vibrant youth. Through a transformed educational system and a revitalized economic landscape that encourages small-scale and individual entrepreneurship, enhanced agricultural productivity, along with support for large-scale manufacturing and large-scale information technology-related programmes, and the services sector.

Judicious Bilateralism, Assertive Multilateralism
While we should continue to conduct judicious bilateralism as we have done fairly well in the past, we should also formulate a more assertive multilateralism. This is particularly needed in the realm of correcting widespread negative global perceptions about Pakistan. This blemish is compounded by our continued lack of sustained investment in placing content on social media and conventional mass media, which accurately portrays the positive, creative, dynamic facets of our people and our beautiful, bountiful land, and our people’s phenomenal talent and potential.

Learning from China
There is so much to learn from both China and the USA. Some sources of possible learning are already common in those countries. These include their (differing) educational systems, which nevertheless have secured optimal mass literacy, enrolment of girls and women at all levels, and equitable stress on both humanities and science and technology.

But my preferred priorities about learning from China begin with its relentless merit-based system. This is perhaps best exemplified by the example of Xi Jinping, the present President of China. Despite being the son of Xi Zhongxun, a well-known senior Communist Party leader, who had survived years of partisan victimization, and despite being otherwise diligent and disciplined, his applications for admission to the Communist Youth League --- an essential first step towards eventual possible membership of the Communist Party --- were declined as many as eight times over several years. Where this aspect testifies to Xi Jinping’s unshakable resolve to gain admission, it also mirrors a system so rooted in impartiality that merit alone --- not family connections, nor other influences --- determines eligibility and future prospects, strictly related to individual performance. Whereas admission to Pakistan’s civil and military services is also formally based on merit alone --- apart from provincial quotas and other quotas --- it is also true that an officer’s progress is often determined by factors not connected with individual ability or performance.

A second area of learning from China is the management of complexity.
There will be much material in sheer size and multiplicity of regions, levels, and specializations on how to structure organizations and ensure that each contributes to the common good while remaining accountable. In the latter respect, there are credible reports in recent months of how President Xi has dismissed from office several senior-most figures in both civil and military domains who he had earlier personally appointed, thus proving that personal relations have no bearing on accountability. This lesson is much needed to be learnt in Pakistan. A third aspect to study is the notable fact that, whereas China continues to be a state-led polity and economy, over 60 per cent of its economy in 2025 is reported to be led by the private sector, which also contributes 70 per cent of technology innovations, placing China ahead of the USA in an increasing number of fields. In contrast, in Pakistan, the public sector is estimated to generate about 67 per cent of the economy --- for better, and for worse --- with a few efficient as well as several inefficient state-owned enterprises mixing the mesh. Or mess. The fourth is a forlorn wish. Whereas China is an unapologetically single-party state in which the Communist Party is the supreme authority and the military is unmistakably subject to civil, political oversight and direction, Pakistan is both a cacophonous, noisy, multi-party polity and a country in which the military dominates even political realities and electoral results. Is there something to learn from China, without becoming a single-party state?

While we should continue to conduct judicious bilateralism as we have done fairly well in the past, we should also formulate a more assertive multilateralism.

Learning from the USA
Co-equivalent to China in the realm of merit, the USA offers to Pakistan a fine example of a society in which opportunity to progress and succeed is available to all --- or to most, with blacks, Native Americans, others, still at a relative disadvantage compared to WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Yet, it should be acknowledged that, in recent decades, tens of thousands of Pakistanis who emigrated to the USA have achieved remarkable success: in health care, banking, finance, private enterprise, real estate, information technology, academia, etc., purely due to individual merit and ability, regardless of colour, faith, original income group. Though freedom of expression is exploited even to permit profanities (e.g. 4-letter words used before Prophetic names like Jesus) that would be unacceptable outside the USA and the West, the space to express and propagate a wide variety of views, many often directly questioning the basic legitimacy of state institutions, is large and open, without fear of prosecution. Except currently, with the wild excesses of the Trump phase. Liberty is certainly a fundamental attribute of American society worth emulation within extreme limits. Other strengths of the USA, such as its higher education university system ---now under assault by Trump --- and its comparative openness and transparency, its capacity to produce content for media that is so richly informative and enjoyable, be it the National Geographic magazine or TV shows like Sesame Street, Seinfeld or The Simpsons or cinema and the arts makes that country a major source of learning for all.

From Square to Hexagon
Inevitably, Pakistan’s future relations with China and the USA will remain a continuing challenge. Our trust in China is, always should be, unshakable, rooted in centuries of pre-Independence history, flowered by 78 years of friendly, spontaneous, mutually supportive fraternity, inspired by shared visions for an ecologically enduring, politically stable planet. Equally, despite the contrasting physical distance from the USA, Pakistan should, and can, maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with an extraordinarily dynamic country. Despite its distressing unwillingness to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza or comprehend the basic injustices in Palestine, Kashmir, and other areas, the USA is of vital national interest to Pakistan.

The most recent interactions in May-August 2025 between civil and political leaderships and military commanders of all three countries offer prospects for the well-considered conduct of relations to ensure a stable future for all three states. And for other countries, particularly with a fourth, named India. Whose presence in this triangle or square is unavoidable, because geography cannot be changed --- to make the interrelationships between the four countries, using creatures as symbols, into a hexagon. India’s national bird is the elegant peacock; its national animal is the handsome Bengal tiger. Both are exotic, endearing species, like the other four. Added to dragon and eagle, markhor and chikor, the six can together synthesize and symbolize the inherent, inescapable mystique of Nature --- for (hopefully) peaceful co-existence and progressive evolution.

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