Beijing right to demand better safety for workers
For the 3,000 or so Chinese workers involved in infrastructure projects in Pakistan, there was, until recent months, a sense that they were exempt from the violence affecting the country's border areas.
China, as a key Pakistani ally and a provider of development aid, would never be caught up in the skirmishes between tribal warlords and the government of General Pervez Musharraf, or so the thinking went.
But after the Gwadar port project attack in May in which three Chinese technicians died, and the hostage crisis last week that ended in the death of a Chinese engineer in South Waziristan, that complacency is no longer justified.
This is especially so if the kidnapping in April of seven Chinese workers in Iraq and two other attacks involving Chinese in Pakistan in June and last month are taken into consideration.
Beijing is right to ask Islamabad for stepped-up security for all of its workers in Pakistan. And at the very least the arrangements for those working in areas such as Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan and a frontline in General Musharraf's fight against al-Qaeda-linked militants, should be reviewed.
At the same time, there's nothing to indicate that the China-Pakistan alliance or the region's geo-strategic balancing act will be upset by these events. China still needs Pakistan to counter Indian influence in the region, even while it is taking steps to get closer to New Delhi. Pakistan, in turn, looks to Beijing to offset American influence in the region, even as it is co-operating with the US in its efforts against al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
It appears that the mastermind behind the South Waziristan kidnappings was a former Guantanamo prisoner named Abdullah Mehsud, who freely gave interviews to the local media during the crisis. Interestingly, it was one of his own tribesmen who was behind the effort to negotiate the Chinese prisoners' release. And it could be his own tribesmen, some of whom are angered by the events, who see that he is brought to account.
As with many of the other nationals who have found themselves in the crossfire of the region's fight against violent fundamentalists, the Chinese workers in Pakistan may be there because they need the jobs or because they want to help rebuild the most war-torn areas.
The cowardly acts of hostage-takers such as Abdullah Mehsud might give the countries sending them pause for thought. But in the case of Beijing, the workers sent to Pakistan by their mostly state-owned companies are not about to leave, and that is good news for the Pakistanis who need the electricity plants and other infrastructure the Chinese are bringing.
It is incumbent now on General Musharraf to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the safety of those who are still there.
