On New Year's day, Trump unleashed a series of tweets accusing  Pakistan of harboring terrorists, and went so far as to threaten cutting off the country's financial aid. To make matters worse, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, also accused Pakistan of playing "a double game for years," and said President Trump would withhold $225 million in aid to the country.

Trump's tweetstorm did not impress the Pakistani government: in response, it announced that it would be evicting some 1.4 million Afghan refugees from the country later this month. The Pakistani government also announced closer ties with China, and would ditch the dollar in bilateral trade with China, a move that has threatened Washington's diplomatic relations with Pakistan.

And now, according to the Washington Times, Pakistan will further boost economic and defense ties between Beijing and Islamabad. The report specifies that China is planning to build a military base in Pakistan, which would be its second military base in the East. The naval installation will be erected in a key strategic location: the Pakistani town of Jiwani, a port near the Iranian border on the Gulf of Oman and near the Straits of Hormuz, which resides at one of the six proposed economic corridors of the One Belt One Road Initiative, commonly called the Silk Road Economic Belt.