By Yousma Gul 5 August 2023
The vice premier of China and special presidential envoy, He Lifeng, visited Pakistan to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Pakistan- China joint infrastructure development efforts under China’s global Belt and Road Initiative. Through the Gwadar port, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) seeks to provide western China’s landlocked region with the quickest access to global markets. With the help of CPEC, China has invested more than $25 billion directly in Pakistan, setting up power plants, constructing transportation infrastructure, and developing the strategically positioned deep-water port of Gwadar in Pakistan. The huge project expected to bring an end to years of crises resulting from power outages in the country by building more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) of highways and roads, adding 8,000 megawatts of energy to the national grid, and creating close to 200,000 direct local employments.
Chinese foreign ministry said Saturday while announcing Lifeng’s visit, “Over the past decade, as an important pioneering project of the BRI, CPEC has achieved fruitful results and become a new benchmark for the friendship between China and Pakistan.”
Since the two countries diplomatic ties were established on May 21st, 1951, they have had a cordial and close relationship and their “All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership” with the CPEC at its core has developed out of the partnership over time. China regards Pakistan as among its closest allies and partners, similarly, Pakistan perceives China as its “Iron Brother”. During his 2015 trip to Pakistan, Chinese President Xi Jinping remarked, “I feel as if I am going to visit the home of my own brother”.
CPEC project continues to Chinese private companies, who have launched several economic projects in Pakistan’s developing sectors in which infrastructure, telecommunications, energy, and agricultural initiatives are a few major developments that strengthened the two states’ connection. To further their relations, student exchange programs, cultural collaboration, tourist marketing, people-to-people interactions are other noteworthy aspects of the two nations’ connection. At the national and international levels, both countries enjoy strong regional cooperation such as in Shanghai and at the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Chinese and Pakistani officials have always stood by one another. Moreover, China has always backed Pakistan’s position on Kashmir conflict and regional security.
Beyond CPEC,the two states have had bilateral relationships for many years in which geopolitical objectives, strategic considerations, and economic collaboration have remained some important facets of the relationship. Long-standing strategic ties between China and Pakistan are also motivated by a shared concern for regional security where both nations practice intelligence sharing, conduct cooperative military drills, sales of weapons, and occasionally engagementof their troops in regular military exchanges and joint training exercises.Pakistan has traditionally received military hardware from China as China is one of Pakistan’s major arms suppliers and has always been essential to Pakistan’s defense capability. Chinese government has sold fighter planes, armed vehicles, submarines, surface-to-air missiles, naval vessels, and other weapons to Pakistan and China’s arms shipments have helped Pakistan in maintaining balance of power in the South Asian region. Additionally, China has helped Pakistan build its military industry and advance technological capabilities of its armed forces, including the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Despite India’s widespread propaganda on the security and sustainability of CPEC project, China maintains a close working relationship with Pakistan. Speculations regarding the attack on Gwadar port, which is a key element of the CPEC project, as well as attacks on Chinese nationals in Pakistan are only two of the numerous tactics that India is using to ensure the failure of the project. On numerous instances,Pakistan’s agencies have caught Indian spies attempting to sabotage the CPEC project, with Kalboshan Yadav capture case as a major incident. He later confessed in a video statement that he was assigned a mission to spy around the CPEC project and keeping an eye on all Chinese activities there. He further admitted that he has been responsible for launching anti-state activities in Balochistan and across the whole CPEC project (in which he urged the people of Balochistan to fight against the Chinese nationals and oppose the CPEC project by portraying it as a threat to their land.
Since the beginning of their relationship, China and Pakistan have both worked to make it stronger through strategic, diplomatic and economic ties. However, informal and ancient friendship among two states are due to centuries-old business connections that were established when Chinese merchants used the historic Silk Road to travel to the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of the world. Famous people like monks Fa Xian and Xuan Zang traveled through what is now Pakistan more than 2,000 years ago and CPEC is the continuation of the decades-old trade relations between the two countries. On the occasion of CPEC’s 10th Anniversary, both countries have once again reaffirmed their eagerness to ensure the prosperity of the CPEC project.