PM’s visit to Beijing | By Professor Shazia Cheema, Prague
PM’s visit to Beijing
AFTER a nearly four-year hiatus, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is finally back on track and the joint statement released after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Beijing includes almost everything one can expect of two experienced friends.
Whatever the former PTI government did with Pakistan’s foreign affairs, especially with CPEC, is now a terrible dream of the past.
I had already written what the irresponsible leadership of former Prime Minister Imran Khan had done with Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia, China and even with the United States, he did not so its not necessary to go into details but i can recap all events as ‘the most reckless foreign relations Pakistan has ever had’ what PTI has done in its appalling 42 months in office is a classic example of bad diplomacy.
During his visit, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held talks with State Council Premier Li Keqiang, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Li Zhanshu and President Xi Jinping .
The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations, the regional situation and the international political landscape.
In the past two years, the West has targeted the “one China policy” and also questioned the issues of the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, and the firm support Pakistan’s and constant Chinese views on all the above issues had been appreciated by the Chinese media during the visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who covered all the important issues that would help Pakistan’s shaky economy stand on its feet , including ML-1 which is a key project under CPEC and of importance to Pakistan. socio-economic development, Karachi Circular Railway, which is urgently needed for Pakistan’s largest city, Gwadar Port Free Zone, cooperation in agriculture, mining, information technology, socio-economic development under CPEC and the implementation of the Framework Agreement on Industry Cooperation to support the industrial development of Pakistan.
There is no doubt that Pakistan and China are called the most tried and the best friends on earth, but I think that China needs Pakistan more than ever, because the West, with all its might, is trying to encircle China’s trade routes and harm China’s trade interests. and Pentagon-supported projects such as Five Eye, QUAD, AKUAS, Indo-Pacific Framework, Indo-Pacific Army Management Seminars, and the Summit of Pacific Island Nations in Washington directly target Chinese strategic and commercial interests. in the whole world.
We all know that the Biden administration is on the fast track to a major new foreign policy design to combat and contain China.
The Chairman of the Senate Defense Committee, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, calls this US attempt to contain China a chapter from an outdated textbook, namely the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
In his article titled “US Policy in China Heads for Disaster,” writes that since anti-communism always sells, this playbook also begins with the demonization of the Chinese Communist Party, such as its nostalgic return to the Communist Party of China. Union (CPSU), but American policymakers fail to understand that China is not the Soviet Union.
I support Mushahid’s view that China is not the (former) Soviet Union that could have everything but not a sustainable trade and survival business model.
President Putin once rightly said that the USSR had many friends but no buyers for its products.
China may not have everything the USSR had, but it has buyers of its products on every street and in every corner of the world.
At present, China not only wants Pakistan as a safe passage to the Indo-Pacific, but also as a rock-solid partner who will stand with China in all the coming challenges of the Western world. led by the United States.
—The writer is a Prague-based author, columnist and foreign affairs expert who writes for national and international media.
