The China–Pakistan axis: Asia’s new geopolitics by Andrew Small

‘“It is a little naive to think that the trouble with China was essentially due to a dispute over some territories. It had deeper reasons.”—Jawaharlal Nehru’ (p. 68).

‘“China has a good understanding of almost everything in Pakistan, political security or economic, that might affect the bilateral relationship, but there is one piece they just don’t get: Islam”—Pakistani Sinologist, Islamabad’ (p. 81).

The China–Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics fills a gap in the strategic literature on two of the countries with immense geopolitical significance for the foreign policy advisors and scholars in the upcoming decade. The author motivates the reader to rationalise the China–Pakistan relations as the ‘all-weather friendship’ important for the transition of China from a regional to a global power. The timing of the book is apt, as it comes when China is calibrating out its New Silk Route (NSR) projects, entering into Central Asian economies and check-mating the US Asia Pivot policy. In short, the book is a potent response to what it means for China to march West.1