China is said to have played a master stroke by successfully persuading major Gulf powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, into restoring diplomatic relations, thus reducing the US into an odd man out.

No doubt, China has done it discreetly but strictly in accordance with its reputation or its approach to global or strategic challenges that has always characterised its dealings with the world outside China. China, for example, could have claimed Hong Kong forcibly but it didn’t.

Deng Xiaoping had told British leadership over a luncheon that his forces could take over Hong Kong by the time they would be finishing eating food, but it would rather wait for re-embracing the British colony till Britain exhausts the 99-year lease in accordance with international laws.

China has now called upon both Russia and Ukraine to initiate a dialogue with a view to ending their bloody conflict that has already resulted in death and destruction on a massive scale. It is quite likely that no other country but China would be ultimately brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in the interest of global peace and trade.

Rahatullah (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023