Xi Jinping asks Pakistan to guarantee 'safety of Chinese personnel and projects'

China is willing to expand and upgrade the country's economic ties with Pakistan but hopes Islamabad can create a "safe, stable, and predictable" business environment, President Xi Jinping told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday.

The trip to Beijing was Sharif's first visit to China since starting his second term as prime minister in March and comes as the country's economy continues to struggle with the impact of a debt crisis, inflation and fiscal deficits as well as ongoing political instability.

Xi said China would continue to promote high-quality construction with Pakistan under the Belt and Road Initiative, and pledged to expand cooperation in areas such as "agriculture, mining, social and livelihood affairs in accordance with the local conditions", according to state broadcaster CCTV.

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He also vowed to upgrade the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying the two countries would seek to cooperate on innovation and green industry.

However, he added that Pakistan should continue to "create a safe, stable and predictable business environment and effectively guarantee the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and organisations".

His message follows a string of attacks on Chinese citizens working on CPEC projects in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

In the most recent attack, five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in a suicide bombing on their way to the Dasu hydropower dam project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in March.

It followed the deadliest attack involving Chinese citizens in 2021, when a suicide bomber on a bus killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers.

Sharif said Pakistan would deepen its cooperation with China on belt and road projects and promised to "ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and institutions in Pakistan".

"The government of Pakistan ... will resolutely combat and severely punish the terrorists involved and take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and institutions in Pakistan," Sharif said, according to the Chinese statement.

Abdul Basit, an associate research fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said he believed that "China is not satisfied" with Pakistan's current security measures.

But Zhu Yongbiao, a professor with the school of politics and international relations at Lanzhou University, said China was "generally satisfied" with Pakistan's counterterrorism operations, although it wanted closer cooperation on security.

He also said Beijing would continue to invest in the country and the main focus of the visit "is still economic and trade cooperation, in order to help Pakistan's development and enhance its capacity for self-reliance".

Afghanistan is also becoming an increasingly significant element in both countries' thinking on security, as divisions start to emerge.

The Post has previously reported that Chinese diplomats in Islamabad and Kabul are seeking to persuade the Taliban to rein in Pakistani Taliban militants and prevent a surge in cross-border terrorist attacks

China is trying to use its growing influence over the Taliban authorities in Kabul, which it has not formally recognised, to rein in the Pakistani Taliban and prevent cross-border attacks on Chinese personnel and interests.

But Pakistan is taking an increasingly tough stance towards Afghanistan's Taliban regime and has repeatedly accused it of sheltering terrorists.

Earlier this week, Islamabad said it had arrested 11 militants accused of being involved in the March attack, adding that the suicide bomber who targeted the Chinese convoy was an Afghan national.

"There was a time when Pakistan had more influence and friendly ties [with the Taliban] compared to China. But now I think some things have changed. China has more influence and friendly ties with the Taliban than Pakistan," Basit said.

He added that "Pakistan, sees the Taliban as a challenge, but for China, it sees the Taliban as an opportunity".

Before meeting Xi, Sharif and a business delegation of more than 100 people visited Shenzhen, the country's innovation hub and a model for China's economic reforms, on Tuesday and Xian, a centre for science and technology in the northwest of the country, on Friday.

Local media reported that Sharif met government and business leaders from the two cities, discussing closer cooperation in areas such as new energy and information technology.

With inflation standing at 20 per cent and the country's economy struggling, Islamabad is increasingly looking to upgrade and expand the CPEC, which is designed to link the western Chinese region of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea and Middle East.

"The second phase of CPEC, according to Pakistan, is about industrialisation. They want to set up special economic zones in partnership with China, and they want to move towards reforms in agriculture, and cooperation in emerging technologies such as information," Basit said.

"Pakistan also believes that China is relocating some of its low-end industries because China is moving towards more high-end ones ... so Pakistan wants to attract China to locate some of its industries."

He also expects that the two countries will negotiate for a framework to extend Pakistan's loan repayment date.

Last year Pakistan's external debt reached around US$130 billion, double the figure in 2015, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

China accounts for 13 per cent of the country's total foreign debt, according to Zhao Shiren, the country's consul-general in Lahore.

"I think China will show flexibility. We may see a framework of how Pakistan is going to pay the loans [to China] in the next five years and what the mechanism is. They can't pay it now," Basit said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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