Time for us to reciprocate China’s spirit?

China’s unflinching support to Pakistan is manifested in the Winter Olympics motto: Together For A Shared Future

A day before PM Imran Khan’s take-off for Beijing, Chinese Ambassador in Pakistan Nong Rong set the tone for the four-day visit that ended on Feb 6. Recalling President Xi Jinping’s phone talk with PM Imran on 26 Oct 2021, the ambassador wrote in his curtain-raising article: “The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, with more sources of turbulence and risks around the world. Under the new circumstances, the two countries should stand together even more firmly and push forward the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era. Nowadays, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has entered a new stage of high-quality development, and the cooperation between our two sides will have even greater potential.”

Conveying the spirit in Beijing about Pakistan, the ambassador wrote: “We will continue to unleash the positive effects of CPEC in promoting growth and improving people’s well-being. China is ready to work with Pakistan to enhance multilateral coordination, practice true multilateralism and promote international fairness and justice, to safeguard the common interests of the two countries and maintain world peace and stability.”

Almost every word of the 33-point joint declaration, released after the Xi-Imran meeting on Feb 6, reflected the spirit that Mr Rong had underscored in his article.

On Feb 3 itself, in a reflection of their belief in the Sino-Pak friendship, a Chinese friend sent me this moving message: “The grand opening ceremony of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Games themed at Together For A Shared Future will be held on 1700hrs (PKT) on February 4^th. The PM of our all-weather friend will attend the opening ceremony. We would like to share our joyfulness and pride with our brothers.”

Such messaging comes only from people and officials who are committed to the national cause and who proudly take ownership of the path that their leaders chart in the national interest.

The outcome of Imran’s visit put to rest all the propaganda on CPEC slowdown and the reported Chinese unhappiness over outstanding payments to Chinese power companies. A few solid takeaways from the visit are:

1) Commitment to continue CPEC with full force and an emphasis on industrialisation to spur growth.

2) Reiteration to work together and coordinate on anti-terror efforts. The resolve on counterterrorism became even more relevant and stronger in the context of four deadly attacks that martyred 27 Pakistani security personnel in Balochistan and Kurram. The surge in terror incidents stems from conflicting geopolitical interests. This should caution both China and Pakistan to try and decipher the Iranian policy towards Gwadar Port. Iran raised the Chabahaar Port with India’s help. Would they both be amenable to a modern and much bigger China-run Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea as an access to the Middle East?

3) Agreement to extend CPEC westwards into Afghanistan is another major takeaway. It is critical for Pakistan also because of its crippling power sector circular debt. Pakistan has now excess electricity but it cannot use or buy it. Still, it has to pay fixed capacity charges to power companies. One option is to barter Afghan coal for electricity. We understand Chinese companies have now agreed to a 500KV connectivity between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This way China will get the payment of CPEC projects. Bartering electricity for cash or coal — or a mix of this — will be a bailout both for Pakistan and Chinese investors. Though outstanding payments to investors have remained a source of negative speculation, Chinese officials call it an “unnecessarily hyped-up issue that is technical in nature and will not impact the overall relationship”.

But let us not forget what an ex-Chinese envoy told us a few years ago: “In China, if you lend money to your neighbor and the neighbor is unable to return it, our traditions bind us never to go to the neighbor to ask for the repayment.”

China’s unflinching support to Pakistan and desire to help it navigate the economic and geopolitical turbulence is manifested in the Winter Olympics motto: Together For A Shared Future. And for people like myself, who know Chinese mindset for over 14 years now, this spirit stems from the long-term belief that you can only grow if your neighbour is also growing in peace. Is Pakistan ready to convert this Chinese spirit to its advantage?

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2022.

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