Who Writes the First Blank Cheque?

So with the US siding with India against China, Pakistan is getting all cute and cuddly with China:

(CNSNews.com) - Pakistan increasingly is looking to China as a natural strategic ally and energy partner, and some Pakistanis see the move as all the more important given the new emphasis Washington is placing on its ties with India.

Pakistan and China have enjoyed good ties for decades, but the relationship is heading for a new level, a shift likely to have strategic ramifications for U.S. interests in the region.

...Because of the longstanding enmity between the nuclear-armed neighbors, Pakistan has traditionally viewed good U.S. ties with India as inimical to its own interests, and vice versa.

...In a little-reported comment during Musharraf's visit to Beijing his Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, told Chinese television Pakistan would stand by China if the U.S. ever tried to "besiege" it.

This is just swell. We've now got incumbent overseas powers meddling in continental politics, rising powers making defensive alliances against each other, and enough potential hot spots to start a world war.

I used to write that I hoped China, India and Japan would emulate Germany, France, and England of 1945-present, not Germany, France, and England of 1914-1945. I am far less optimistic these days.