In Pakistan, most people view China as a saviour and time-tested friend – one that, unlike the US, will never abandon their country. According to former diplomat Tariq Fatimi, this is the only one of Pakistan's links that can be considered truly 'strategic'. To a great extent, however, this relationship is based on the transfer of military technology. Beijing played a key role in the development of Pakistan's nuclear programme, and was also a source of weapons to fill the gaps left by the US arms embargo on the country until the blockade was lifted in 2001. China also provided military supplies when none were assured from the West.
China-Pakistan links have survived adverse times as well as the ideological and cultural divide. Yet there is still very little cultural exchange between the two at the level of the common citizen. A bottom-up view indicates that the relationship is less strategic than the official top-down perspective would suggest: the two societies are less relevant to each other than the two states, meaning that the relationship lacks depth. Since it has become increasingly difficult for an average Pakistani to obtain a Chinese visa, people-to-people contact, which could build stronger and deeper ties, has become almost impossible. Moreover, Pakistan is a heavily Muslim country where there is little popular sympathy for Chinese communism. Even among the Pakistani left, there was long a division between pro-Soviet and pro-Maoist groups, and the latter version of communism never found much purchase in Pakistan.
Beyond the general perception that China is an all-weather friend there is also some negative opinion, particularly in the business community. The corporate sector has been badly affected by the dumping of cheap Chinese goods in Pakistan's markets, but the high-stakes relationship between the two states means that the business community has not been able to protest too loudly. A senior official at the Ministry of Finance in Islamabad conceded that there is substantial informal trade in the form of smuggling of Chinese goods into Pakistan. However, Islamabad seems to consider it almost suicidal to broach the matter openly, given the importance of the defence ties with Beijing.
More interestingly, the second group that privately expresses reservations about China is the military personnel directly involved in weapons procurement. Junior and mid-ranking officers who come in contact with Chinese manufacturers express shock and disappointment at how Chinese businesses negotiate as ruthlessly as the weapons manufacturers of the West. In the minds of these military officers, this present-day reality clashes with the memory of China as a friend that provided Pakistan with free weaponry during the war with India in 1965. Although there is no proof to support this view, many continue to believe that China could play a decisive role as Pakistan's saviour in case of an escalation of conflict with India.