China's National Security Prevailed Over Ideology

Am reading a rather dated book written by a former professor Leo Suryadinata (pictured) – China and the ASEAN States: The Ethnic Chinese Dimension (Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore, 1985).

Suryadinata noted that when China’s national security and territorial integrity clashes with ideology, the former invariably prevailed.

One example was the Indo-Pakistan dispute where from the international communist standpoint “Beijing should have sided with India rather than Pakistan”. India at that time was not a member of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) and tolerated the communist party, while Pakistan was a member of SEATO and banned communist activities.

But yet China sided with Pakistan because India has assisted Tibetan rebels who threatened China’s territorial integrity. Moreover, India had a border dispute with China and was on good terms with the Soviet Union – China’s then adversary.

“The Chinese leaders perceived the Russian threat to be real, and the cooperation between India and the Soviet Union persuaded the PRC to take the Pakistani side.”