Daily Times

Vice President Wang Qishan of the Democratic Republic of China has arrived in Islamabad on a three-day official visit. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Khusro Bakhtiar received the Chinese leader upon his arrival at the Nur Khan Airbase.

Foreign Minister Qureshi told reporters on the occasion that five Memorandums of understanding were going be signed during the Chinese leader’s visit. He said the vice president would also inaugurate some projects. During the visit, the Chinese vice president will hold meetings with President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The foreign minister said that an investiture ceremony would also be held in Qishan’s honour during which he will receive an award for his role in promotion of bilateral ties between Pakistan and China. The Chinese leader is also scheduled to visit Lahore where he will be received by Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. He will visit several historical places in the metropolis.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry had said earlier that Qishan’s visit to Pakistan would further deepen high-level exchanges, friendship and mutual trust between the two countries and advance the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, besides bilateral cooperation across the board.

The Chinese leader’s visit comes at a time when new challenges to the China-Pakistan cooperation for development and prosperity are unfolding.

There has been a spate of terrorist violence in Balochistan, apparently meant to deter the Chinese engineers, experts and labour working on some of the projects related to Gwadar port and the western route of the Corridor. In one case, the terrorist group claiming responsibility for the cowardly attack has even mentioned its opposition to the CPEC.

Then there is a wave of disinformation regarding the Belt and Road Initiative which is being portrayed as a neo-colonialist venture aiming at making China a 21st century imperial state prospering at the cost of its development partners; and reducing their peoples to painful compromises on sovereignty, even virtual slavery. The people-to-people contacts and exchanges are also being targeted with exaggerated accounts of human trafficking, modern slavery and forced prostitution. China is also being accused of not only oppressing its religious and ethnic minorities, including Muslims, but also encouraging disregard of human rights by partner governments.

Meanwhile, there are new developments on the geo-political and geo-strategic scene. To the east, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who campaigned on an irresponsibly anti-Pakistan platform has been re-elected in India. To the West, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf are seeing heightened military activity as United States brings in warships, aircraft and troops ostensibly to fight Iran, a move that threatens to make the oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz very uncertain. *