The LLF session titled “Nixon, Mao and Pakistan” started with art historian F.S. Aijazuddin making a brief presentation on the imperialist China through slides showing dynastic rule and post-republic period in a chronological order.

He spoke of a flurry of diplomatic activity in 1972 when Islamabad had acted as a secret conduit for Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing at the peak of Cold War era.

Mr. Aijazuddin invited Margaret MacMillan, Canadian historian and professor at the University of Oxford, to speak about the US engagement with China. Ms MacMillan said: “The Soviet Union was stunned and shocked by the move of the [then] American administration.”

MacMillan, the author of a number of books, including ‘Nixon and Mao’ and ‘Seize the hour when Nixon met Mao’, was barely audible to attendees sitting even in the first two or three rows because of throat infection she was suffering from.

An intriguing moment at the session came when Mr Aijazuddin, quoting a Chinese armed forces commander, said: “Pakistan is China’s Israel.”

Contesting the statement, a member from the audience said: “If Pakistan is China’s Israel then India is China’s Iran,” to which Ms MacMillan commented that despite the 1962 conflict [with India], Beijing didn’t demonise New Delhi the way Washington had demonized Tehran.

Mr Aijazuddin referred to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying it’s not a corridor rather it’s a set of energy and transport-related projects.

Replying to a question by Mr Aijazuddin about whether China is evincing ‘East India Company-like’ interest in Pakistan, MacMillan said Beijing didn’t exercise any political influence here.

Aijazuddin concluded the conversation by narrating an anecdote that when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto asked Chou En-Lai about the impact of French Revolution (1789) on western society, the Chinese leader said: “It is too early to tell about it.”

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2017