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The visit by the Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan in April 2015 saw repeated references to some clichéd phrases describing Sino-Pak relationship, like ‘all weather friendship’. Some new linguistic coinage emerged, such as, ‘visiting brother’s home’ and, ‘security for one as stability for the other’. An Indian dimension of this China-Pakistan nexus is reinforced when we consider recent Chinese reticence to criticize Pakistan’s inaction against Zaki Ur Rahman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. In this background, Andrew Small’s work, tracing the genesis, evolution and the critical drivers of China–Pakistan relationship through a geopolitical framework assumes relevance.