China leaves ‘all-weather’ friends high and dry: Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka

China’s claim to be an “all-weather” friend has for long been dubious. Once hailed as steadfast allies, Pakistan and China now see their partnership fray. Islamabad’s deepening financial crisis prompted a plea for Chinese support; yet, Beijing delivered little beyond words. Further west, China likewise offered only rhetoric, not action, on Iran’s behalf.

These developments echo earlier strains in Beijing’s alliances. Sri Lanka famously lost control of its Hambantota port after defaulting on Chinese loans, a move that can be likened to the Shylockian demand for a “pound of flesh” in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. African governments have likewise warned that China’s opaque, stringent loan conditions leave borrowers crippled.

Beijing often urges its partners into high-stakes deals but routinely fails to come through when crises strike.

Pakistan: China’s ‘all-weather’ friend on shaky ground

Beijing’s cosy partnership with Pakistan is straining under economic pressure. Islamabad owes China billions under the $62 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and when Pakistan’s reserves ran low, it urgently sought relief.

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But China’s response was strikingly cautious: analysts say Beijing had grown “impatient” with Pakistan’s woes and “reluctant to provide unconditional bailouts”. In 2018, Prime Minister Imran Khan flew to Beijing expecting aid, but the official communique made no mention of emergency support. Instead, China insisted that Pakistan fully honour existing CPEC terms — signalling that any relief would depend on Islamabad’s compliance.

With Beijing withholding immediate assistance, Pakistan had little choice but to turn to the IMF for a bailout. Officials eventually secured a separate $6 billion rescue package from Saudi Arabia and an IMF programme, underscoring that China’s role was not to rescue Islamabad but to protect its strategic interests. This episode suggests that China will demand returns on its investments rather than simply writing them off.

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The latest development is worse. In a dramatic reversal of loyalties, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Gen Asim Munir, has reportedly offered the United States access to military bases on Pakistani soil to launch strikes against Iran, China’s strategic partner and a fellow Muslim nation. If true, this move not only signals a chilling betrayal of the Islamic principle of ummah (solidarity among Muslim nations) but also raises serious questions about Pakistan’s reliability as a Chinese ally.

For years, China has nudged Pakistan into geopolitical standoffs, from India to Afghanistan, without offering full-throated support in return. Now, Pakistan appears to be returning the favour — pursuing backroom deals with Washington, Beijing’s chief rival, even at the expense of regional Islamic unity. In essence, Pakistan may be responding to China’s duplicity with a diplomatic double-cross of its own.

Iran: China’s rhetoric, No rescue

China’s strategic partnership with Iran has likewise revealed limits. Despite formal ties, China’s actions in moments of crisis have been modest. When conflict flared in 2023, Beijing publicly protested attacks on Iranian territory and urged de-escalation but provided no concrete assistance. China continued its oil purchases and offered only “ritual calls for ‘dialogue,’” as analyst Craig Singleton put it, with “no drones or missile parts, no emergency credit line” for Tehran. In effect, Iran’s leaders were left largely on their own. A power promising friendship to all sides risks being an “unreliable partner” when true support is needed.

As Iran finds itself under sustained bombardment from Israeli and American airpower in the latest round of hostilities, China’s silence has been deafening. Despite signing a much-publicised 25-year strategic cooperation pact with Tehran in 2021, Beijing has offered little more than vague diplomatic statements calling for “restraint” and “dialogue”.

While Iran bears the brunt of Western military might, China — its supposed economic and strategic partner — has done nothing tangible to shield it. No emergency aid, no political deterrence, and certainly no military support. This passivity has not gone unnoticed in Tehran, where officials are beginning to question whether China’s promises of partnership are worth anything in moments of existential crisis.

Once again, Beijing’s playbook appears consistent: exploit the partnership when it serves Chinese interests, then retreat into cautious neutrality when the ally is under fire.

Sri Lanka & Africa: China’s debt-trap diplomacy

China’s approach to debt has alarmed leaders from Asia to Africa. In Sri Lanka, Colombo borrowed heavily to build the Hambantota deep-water port. When the port failed to generate enough revenue, Sri Lanka in 2017 gave China a controlling stake and a 99-year lease on the facility. Sri Lanka effectively handed over a sovereign asset to settle its debts.

In Africa, governments have voiced analogous concerns. Many Chinese loans carry high interest rates, short maturities and stringent conditions that squeeze borrowers. For example, Uganda agreed to cede the first 20 years of toll and airport revenues to China under a single infrastructure loan.

Unlike Western creditors, China generally does not cancel principal; instead, it extends repayment schedules, leaving nations mired in long obligations. This dreaded “debt-trap diplomacy” is akin to a modern usury scheme, as Chinese financing often ensnares partner states in burdensome debt.

In case after case — from Sri Lanka’s debt crisis to Africa’s warning cries, from Pakistan’s economic freefall to Iran’s military isolation — China has repeatedly proven to be an unreliable partner. It urges nations into high-risk ventures and alliances but recoils when those same partners face pressure or peril.

As Iran takes a relentless beating from Israeli and American forces, Beijing remains conspicuously absent, offering neither deterrence nor defence. And now, the betrayal appears mutual.

What emerges particularly from Islamabad’s offer of military bases to the US must trouble Beijing: If China’s ‘all-weather friendships’ are built on shallow commitments, its allies are increasingly beginning to respond in kind — with double-crosses, disillusionment and quiet departures from the orbit of the Middle Kingdom.

The author is a senior journalist and writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views