PAKISTAN was the first Muslim country to recognise the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with the two countries establishing diplomatic ties on May 21, 1951. During the past 75 years, the relationship has blossomed into an “all-wea­ther strategic cooperative partnership.” During the 1950s and 1960s, despite being a member of Western security alliances, Pakistan helped Beij­ing break out of its international isolation. Islam­abad’s diplomatic mediation in the early 1970s helped in the historic rapprochement between China and the United States. Reciprocally, China has supported Pakistan economically, militarily, and diplomatically, providing unwavering support for its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and socioeconomic stability.

The PRC was established as a single-party ideological state in the Marxist-Leninist tradition. Under the British legacy, Pakistan established a federal state and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. These governance structures have led to divergence in the modernisation trajectories of the two countries, despite the adoption of similar reform policies.

Both China and Pakistan have attempted to resolve the issue of inequitable distribution of agricultural land. The Communist Party of China (CPC) solved the problem by distributing land titles to 300 million peasants using radical measures. Despite possessing less than 10 per cent of the world’s arable land, China produces about 25pc of global grain output. In Pakistan, landlords undermined all attempts at land reforms by falsifying records. Currently, 67pc rural households........

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