Chinese envoy miffed at CPEC security lapses

ISLAMABAD:

In a rare public rebuff, the Chinese envoy to Pakistan on Tuesday said that two deadly terror attacks within only six months were unacceptable and the government should launch a crackdown against all anti-China terrorist groups.

Speaking at a seminar titled 'China at 75', Ambassador Jiang Zaidong further said that security was the biggest constraint to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and "without safe and sound environment nothing can be achieved".

The ambassador spoke twice during the seminar, organised by the Pakistan China Institute of stalwart politician Senator Mushahid Hussain. Jiang first spoke before the speech of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, and then he used his right to reply after Dar's remarks on the security for the Chinese.

"It is very unacceptable for us to be attacked twice in only six months and these attacks have also caused causalities," Ambassador Jiang said. He added that Beijing hoped that the Pakistani side could further strengthen the security measures to protect Chinese personnel, institutions and projects.

"Pakistan should severely punish the perpetrators and crack down on all anti-China terrorist groups," said the ambassador during his second unusual intervention. "Security is the biggest concern for China and a constraint to CPEC in Pakistan."

Ambassador Jiang remarks came after Deputy Prime Minister Dar said in his speech that "Chinese are very clear no matter how lucrative an investment is anywhere if the security issue is there they do not send Chinese personnel. Your country is the only exception. This is what the Chinese leadership told the Prime Minister of Pakistan in my presence".

Ambassador Jiang clarified that "President Xi cares about Chinese people's security and puts people's lives first. He especially cares about the security of the Chinese people in Pakistan. Every time when he meets with Pakistani leaders he asks for taking measures to ensure the security of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects", said the ambassador.

The terrorists have twice targeted Chinese nationals in the past six months, first in March and then again in October just 10 days before the visit of the Chinese Premier to Pakistan.

It is highly uncommon when a foreign diplomat used his right to reply after the speech of the foreign minister, indicating divergent views on security between the two nations.

Dar said that Pakistan was taking action against the terrorists and the progress would be shared during the next week's meeting between President Asif Zardari and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Ambassador Jiang said that during his exchanges with the leaders of the Pakistani side, Premier Li also emphasised the importance of security for economic development and cooperation. He emphasised that China would further deepen economic cooperation with Pakistan but "we hope that the Pakistani side could create a conducive and safe environment" for the Chinese people.

"President Xi always says that security is the guarantee of development and development is the guarantee of the security. With joint efforts, we could crack down on those terrorist groups," said Ambassador Jiang.

"There are an increasing number of attacks on the Chinese nationals because the Pak-China friendship has not been digested by certain powers of the world," Dar said. He added that despite these challenging times, in recent meetings, Pakistan and China had agreed to take CPEC to the next level by deepening cooperation in the areas of trade, industrialisation, digital economy, agriculture and renewable energy.

Dar also criticised the United Stated for its tactics to stop Beijing becoming a global economic power. "China will be the biggest economy in due course despite all the tools that have been used against it, including increasing tariffs on its products up to 200%, said Dar. "Increasing tariffs from 25% to 200% is nothing but politics to use unfair ways to stop China from becoming a global super economic power."

Dar also bitterly criticised the last Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Faiz Hameed for the current deterioration in the security situation.

"We have to blame ourselves for the resurrection of terrorism" said Dar, while blaming the terror attacks on the PTI's policies of friendship with Afghanistan. "We have to blame ourselves for the cup of tea that we drank in Kabul," he added, referring to Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed's visit to Kabul immediately after the Taliban takeover.

"We have to blame ourselves for 102 hardened criminals, who were involved in various crimes but were freed after the cup of tea", said Dar. "We have to take blame for 35,000 to 40,000 terrorists who had left Pakistan but came back after the last government opened borders with Afghanistan."

On the issue of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is incarcerated in an American jail, the deputy prime minister highlighted the government's efforts to persuade the American leadership to pardon her, but said that those efforts could not bear fruit.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz sent a letter to the US president, requesting to pardon Dr Aafia on humanitarian grounds as the US presidents usually grant certain pardons before relinquishing the office. He added that a three-member committee had been formed to meet the US parliamentarians to lobby in favour of her pardon, release, and sending her back to Pakistan.

Coming to unabated Israel's barbarism in Gaza, he said that Pakistan was one of the rare countries which spoke vocally in favour of the Palestinian people and called for an immediate end to genocide, and implementation of the UNSC resolutions and ICJ rulings.

He said 48, 000 innocent Palestinian people had been killed with the majority of them being women and children and another 80,000 injured.

Expressing concerns over the attacks in Lebanon and Iran, he said Pakistan had sent 10 big consignments of relief goods to Gaza and had started hosting Palestinian medical students in Pakistan's public and private medical colleges to make them complete their education.