Pakistan must avoid being placed in a situation where it becomes purely a supplier of raw material to China.
FLORAL PARK, NY, US: This is with reference to Ayesha Siddiqa’s article of November 13 titled “Empire by stealth”. If one goes to America or Europe, one will find that most of the products being sold there have a ‘Made in China’ tag. Even the very popular iPhone made by Apple, a US company, is actually assembled in China. My friends who have been to African countries tell me that China has a presence even there. Several Chinese-owned mining companies are operating all over the African continent, and there are also others that are building roads and railways.
Pakistan must avoid being placed in a situation where it becomes purely a supplier of raw material to China. That would be, in fact, what happened to India under British colonial rule, and there can be no economic gain for Pakistan if it allows something like this to happen.
Our textile industry has been hit hard by Chinese competition and we have little presence in foreign markets. At the very least, we need to insist that Chinese companies transfer technology to Pakistan when they set up factories and plants here, and that they employ Pakistanis at the managerial level.
Bilal Abdul Haque
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2011.
