China was reminded of the harsh realities of its newly acquired status as a global power yesterday when a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of its workers in Pakistan.

At least 30 people were killed when a vehicle laden with explosives was detonated as the convoy carrying 60 Chinese rumbled through a market town near Karachi. Seven policemen and many bystanders died in the blast, which ripped through a bazaar and shops. However, the buses carrying the workers escaped serious damage.

Pakistani security forces said they were certain that the Chinese were the targets of the attack, and Chinese in Pakistan were urged to be on their guard against more violence. The suicide bombing was the second attack on Chinese nationals in Pakistan in less than a month. Suspected Islamic militants killed three Chinese engineers near the northwestern city of Peshawar earlier this month.

The attacks will come as a stark reminder to Beijing of the risks inherent in China’s bolder approach to the extension of its interests and influence beyond its borders, particularly in Asia and Africa. More than four million Chinese now work overseas.

Pakistani security forces have stepped up protection for the 3,000 Chinese working on development projects across the country since the siege and assault on Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque.

The violent end to the siege was triggered by the kidnapping of a group of Chinese women by women students from a seminary linked to the Red Mosque. Leaders of the mosque, who modelled themselves on the Taleban, accused the six Chinese of working as prostitutes in a massage parlour.

Pakistan traditionally has enjoyed close ties with China. However, relations were strained when members of the Muslim separatist movement in the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Uighur sought refuge in Pakistan’s tribal region after fleeing from Afghanistan in 2001. They became closely linked to Pakistan’s radical Islamists.

Islamic militants loyal to al-Qaeda swore revenge after Pakistan handed over to China a number of senior Muslim leaders captured in Kashmir in 2002. They included Ismail Kadir, the Uighur leader who has led a violent struggle to set up an independent East Turkestan state in predominantly Muslim Xinjiang, which borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and restive Central Asian states. In January 2004 China drew up a list of militants linked to al-Qaeda who operated within Pakistan’s tribal areas. Many are believed to have been killed in Pakistani military operations in Waziristan.

China says that its role overseas is to promote neighbourliness and understanding, in countries as diverse as Angola and Antigua. However, the main beneficiaries of China’s overseas investment are poorer nations, such as Sudan, that are rich in the natural resources China needs.

There is a growing sense of unease in countries that are beneficiaries of China’s overseas investment about what many perceive as a new form of colonialism.

China wants its Third World friends to act in accordance with the spirit of the struggle against colonialism and hegemony, but has difficulty grasping the idea that increasing numbers of people believe that it lacks sincerity.

The antagonism ranges from rage felt by Islamic radicals in Pakistan over China’s policies to suppress pro-independence Muslim movements, to resentment among small merchants and tribesmen in Kenya who see their jobs and businesses being taken over by Chinese contractors.

Ahmed Rashid, a political analyst in Pakistan, said that anger was simmering over perceptions that the Chinese were stealing their livelihoods. “The Baluch feel that all the contracts are going to Chinese and they use only their own labour,” he said. Chinese contractors bring in many of their own engineers and labour.

They live in tight-knit communities that operate in a virtual vacuum inside whichever country they have been assigned. That breeds resentment among locals who fear for their livelihoods and are suspicious of outsiders.

In April nine Chinese workers and 65 Ethiopians were killed when guerrillas attacked an oil installation near the Somali border. Rebels abducted a Chinese mining executive searching for uranium in the Sahara, adding Niger to the list of states where China’s hunger for minerals has led its nationals into trouble.

In a recent report, Stratford, the security consultancy, said: “China now faces the dilemma of any country that undertakes an active foreign policy, particularly one based on the acquisition of resources. It must now decide how much to get involved in other countries’ internal issues.”

The idea is anathema to Beijing, which regards non-interference in other countries’ affairs as a fundamental plank of its foreign policy.

— At least 16 people died when a suicide bomber struck at the centre of an army camp in northwestern Pakistan yesterday. The explosion happened during prayers at the Kohat garrison in the North West Frontier Province.

World exposure

— China will need to import 60 per cent of its energy requirement by 2020. Africa already supplies 25 per cent of its oil

— Chinese direct investment in Africa has risen from $5 million (£2.5 million) in 1991 to more than $50 billion last year

— China is almost three years into a $100 billion investment programme in Latin America

— China has given $700 million in credit to Venezuela, and invested $20 billion in Argentina

— In the four years to 2006 China and India quadrupled annual bilateral trade to almost $20 billion

— China’s trade with Pakistan increased 40 per cent to $4.25 billion in the two years to 2005. Analysts also believe China has helped Pakistan’s nuclear programme and supplied short and medium-range missiles

Sources: Heritage Foundation; Foreign Policy in Focus; Council on Foreign Relations

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