Zardari to visit China tomorrow

BEIJING: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is expected to discuss with Chinese leaders issues relating to the recent India-China border talks, the ongoing elections in Afghanistan and the role of Taliban on the China-Pakistan border areas.
He is visiting Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces in China's east coast for four days from Friday. Beijing is expected to send a senior official to share notes about the border talks with India early this month.
"We expect an important Chinese leader to meet our president.But it has not yet been decided who will meet him," Masood Khan, the Pakistani ambassador in Beijing told TNN. This will be Zardari's fourth visit to China in one year and the first one since US President Barack Obama offered massive financial aid to Pakistan.
Zardari was received by State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Beijing's special representative in the India-China border talks, during his last visit to China in February. This was one of the several indications that China shares notes with Pakistan on the border negotiations with India.
But it also showed Beijing's reluctance to send a senior minister to receive Pakistan's head of state. It is not clear who will be dispatched to meet Zardari this time. One official, who might possibly meet the Pakistani leader is Zhou Yong Kang, the state councillor in charge of security.
Beijing has been worried about the close links between Pakistan's Taliban and Uighur militants, who have been involved in a bloody movement to create an independent East Turkmenistan nation out of the Xinjiang region in China.
Masood Khan said one of the goals of the visit was to invite more Chinese investment in Pakistan in different areas including telecommunications. Zardari will also explore possibilities of further cooperation between the two countries in the fields of agriculture, environment, trade and investments, he said.
Though the Pakistani leader is visiting China's provinces instead of coming Beijing, the political aspect of his visit remains highly important for both countries. Beijing has reasons to fear that Zardari's dependence on China for political support may be diminished if the US Congress approves Obama's aid offer to Pakistan.
Zardari had earlier condemned the July 5 riots in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and offered his government's assistance in controlling the activities of separatists. But Beijing, which is concerned about Islamabad's slack control over the Taliban areas of Pakistan, has gone ahead and established direct contact with the local government in the country's North Western Frontier region.