Reader's question: 

And to show that Pakistan has other options, Mr Gilani is to visit China, its "all-weather friend", on May 17th (see article).

Could you explain “all-weather friend”?

My comments:

This is a variation from the more commonplace phrase "fair-weather friend".

Fair weather is good weather, sunny and bright. A fair-weather friend suggests that you can count on his good friendship when things are going well, when, say, you're making loads of money and can invite him to wine and dine with you and generally have a good time. However, when you have trouble, say, run into debt, your friend disappears all of a sudden and is nowhere to be found. He's left the scene lest you should, say, borrow money from him.

An all-weather friend, on the other hand, is different. An all weather friend is instead one you can count on in all kinds of weather, i.e. in good weather and bad.

In other words, at all times.

Still in other words, he’d be there for you come rain or shine.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

Zhang Xin（张欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.