Islamabad: Ever since Beijing started implementing its expansionist policies and crushing the voices of dissidents, the feeling of resistance is fast developing in its neighbouring countries and occupied territories. Although neighbouring Pakistan is China's close ally, the people here are raising their voices against Beijing for its continuous exploitation of resources and violating human rights.The Chinese working in Pakistan are facing resistance and they are being attacked several times. On April 24 three Chinese nationals and a local man were killed after what appeared to be a targeted suicide bombing in Karachi, outside the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute. The suicide attack was carried out by Shari Baloch of Baloch Liberation Army, which opposes Chinese investment in their territory.In 2018, the group also attacked the Chinese Consulate-General in Karachi in South Pakistan, during which two police officers were killed. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), one of the six limbs of China's Silk Road Economic Belt has been criticised as a form of colonization, that will doom Islamabad into being a vassal of Beijing. China even rejected Pakistan Navy's security concerns over priority to speedy completion of CPEC projects in Gwadar.The Pakistan Navy has to vacate 20 acres of prime land in Gwadar after the Cabinet Committee that oversees all CPEC-related work in Pakistan decided against the Navy. In Myanmar, the National Unity Government (NUG) has also warned China's government that its engagement with the country's military Junta could seriously damage China's international reputation, just days after China's foreign minister pledged Beijing's support for the military.The warning was issued in a statement on April 4 by the NUG's Ministry of Foreign Affairs after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Wunna Maung Lwin, the Junta's Foreign Minister, in China on April 1. The NUG stated that it was committed to good relations with China, but that this had to be constructed on the basis of the NUG as the legitimate government of Myanmar.During last June, Wang met with Wunna Maung Lwin and said that "in the past, present, and future, China supports Myanmar to independently choose a development path that suits its national conditions." These comments were echoed by Wang on April 1, when he said that China "will support Myanmar in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and in exploring a development path suited to its national conditions."Sri Lanks's economic instability is largely caused by China's debt-trap diplomacy. Defaults over China's infrastructure-related loans to Sri Lanka, especially the financing of the Hambantota Port, are being cited as factors contributing to the crisis.The construction of the Hambantota Port was financed by the Chinese Exim Bank. The Port was running into losses, so Sri Lanka leased out the Port for 99 years to the Chinese Merchant's Group, which paid Sri Lanka USD 1.12 billion. Sri Lanka appears to be on the edge of a "humanitarian crisis", according to the United Nations Development Programme, as its financial troubles grow, with rising food prices, and the country's coffers having run dry.According to World Bank estimates, five lakh people in Sri Lanka have fallen below the poverty line since the onset of the crisis. As Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis in decades and struggles to pay loans, China turns a blind eye after ensnaring the island nation into a debt trap.As the economic crisis took hold of Sri Lanka, India on the contrary has made a serious effort to bail out its beleaguered neighbor. Since January, it has helped Sri Lanka with USD 2.4 billion, including a USD 400 million currency swap and a USD 500-million loan deferment. Last month, Sri Lanka signed a USD 1-billion credit line with India for the procurement of food, medicines and other essential items. Meanwhile, China has refused to offer any concessions in debt repayment.Total debt to China stands at USD 8 billion, almost one-sixth of Sri Lanka's total external debut of USD 45 billion. China's relations with Nepal are also weakening. In January, Nepal Airlines had grounded six Chinese-made aircrafts, saying that it was proving to be unaffordable to fly them.These sub-standard planes delivered extremely poor serviceability rates and required heavy maintenance. The loan from China for these aircrafts has, however, continued to haunt the airlines. Dues worth $35.1 million, at a steep interest rate along with a service charge and management expenses, are still pending.Not only Nepal, China's supply of sub-standard military equipment to Bangladesh has also irked the Muslim majority nation. The Bangladesh military imported two Type-035G submarines of 1970s vintage and Type-053H frigates from China, with its import dependence on Chinese hardware touching nearing 85 per cent.Beijing had gifted two 1970s era Ming class Type-035G submarines to Bangladesh valued at $100-million each in 2017. These were later re-inducted by the Bangladesh Navy as BNS Nobojatra and BNS Joyjatra. However, both the platforms have been lying idle due to technical issues and could not be used as intended.The year 2020, witnessed China gifting Dhaka with two Chinese 053H3 frigates - BNS Umar Farooq and BNS Abu Ubaidah. The Type-053H3 frigates gifted to the Bangladesh Navy have defects in the fire control system as well as in the helicopter fueling and defueling system. Defects have also been discovered in the gyro compass. Not only the neighbours, the territories under China including Xinjiang and Tibet are facing several human rights crises. This indicates that anti-China sentiments are high in the region.—ANI

 Ever since Beijing started implementing its expansionist policies and crushing the voices of dissidents, the feeling of resistance is fast developing in its neighbouring countries and occupied territories.

Anti-China sentiments developing in neighbouring countries

Beijing: Beijing has been using the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to gain control of the Gwadar port and the region of Gilgit-Baltistan, a media report said.Writing in Global Watch Analysis Roland Jacquard said that CPEC is being used by China to pump in tens of billions of Euros into Pakistan under the banner of economics and development.Gwadar port, located on the Arabian Sea, will allow China to have a say in global energy economics as the country can use a naval base to hold control over the maritime traffic passing between West Asia.It is crucial for China to gain control over the Gilgit-Baltistan region (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir PoK), as the region borders the Xinjiang province of China.If Gwadar is critical for China's external power projection, Gilgit-Baltistan is critical for internal security, Jacquard wrote.Since 2010, there have been reports of growing presence of China in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. It was believed that several Chinese soldiers were present in the region in 2010 to secure road links, build infrastructure projects, including nearly two dozen tunnels.China's presence grew in the region three years later following the announcement of CPEC.There have been several attacks against Chinese nationals in Pakistan and as a result, Beijing has been demanding to bring their own security personnel to protect their assets and nationals in Islamabad.The residents of Gilgit-Baltistan fear that the country can give the region to China as the Shaksgam Valley was ceded to China in early 1960s, Jacquard wrote.The close proximity has resulted in marriages between Gilgit-Baltistan based cross-border traders and Uyghur women. However, several of them have complained that their Chinese wives have disappeared, and are allegedly placed in re-education camps in Xinjiang, the article further read.There has been a rise in anti-China sentiments in the Gilgit-Baltistan area as well as in Gwadar port.The Chinese mega projects are showing an adverse impact on Gilgit-Baltistan's environment leading to uncontrollable pollution and irreversible depletion of aquatic ecosystems.Under the banner of CPEC, Pakistan and China are initiating work on mega-dams, oil and gas pipelines, and uranium and heavy metal extraction in Gilgit-Baltistan.CPEC has been a major cause of militancy and even terror attacks and a sore point with local populations from Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north to Sindh and Balochistan in the south, who feel neglected and marginalised, while their resources get transferred to Punjab and big cities and now to China.Even Islamabad is facing rising unrest and protests from locals in Balochistan, Gwadar and other areas as they accuse the government of depriving them of basic amenities and rights.&nbsp;—ANI

Beijing has been using the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to gain control of the Gwadar port and the region of Gilgit-Baltistan, a media report said.

China Using CPEC To Gain Control Of Gwadar, Gilgit-Baltistan: Report

Islamabad: President of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Maulana Fazlur Rehman has claimed that former Prime Minister Imran Khan was paid by a Gulf state to derail the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and sink the Gwadar Port project. The JUI-F chief claimed to the media, after attending a jirga of tribal elders from North Waziristan district, that the PTI destroyed the country's new economic pillars, Geo News reported.China's investment was one such pillar, he said, adding that CPEC was more than just a road, but a full economic package. "Gwadar is the second largest deep-sea port in Asia. Some countries were feeling a threat from Gwadar. It would have been the most useful port for trade. The PTI inflicted serious damages on the project," he added. Fazl said that the Financial Times article exposed the real face of PTI, Geo News reported.The money given to Abraaj Group also included a huge chunk from a Gulf state, which was aimed at sinking the Gwadar Port project, he alleged. "Now we can see that the depth of the sea has reduced to just 11 feet," he claimed. Fazl said the PDM, by coming to power, actually accepted the challenge it faced. He said the government would give a detailed briefing to the PDM over the economic situation of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday and Ministers had been called to the meeting for the purpose. After that, a strategy would be devised for economic stability, he chief added.—IANS

President of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Maulana Fazlur Rehman has claimed that former Prime Minister Imran Khan was paid by a Gulf state to derail the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and sink the Gwadar Port project.

 'One Gulf state paid Imran Khan to derail CPEC'

Beijing: China, Iran and Pakistan held their first trilateral counterterrorism and regional security consultations on Wednesday in Beijing but Islamabad accused Tehran of providing sanctuaries to insurgents for orchestrating cross-border attacks in a bid to subvert CPEC while Tehran alleged Islamabad of not doing enough to prevent terrorists from conducting cross-border terrorism into Iran, Voice of America (VOA) reported. Baluch insurgents oppose CPEC, alleging it is helping Pakistan's efforts to deprive the local population of the region's natural resources. "The delegations held detailed discussions on the regional security situation, particularly the threat of terrorism faced by the region," said a post-meeting statement in Islamabad, which shared no further details, Voice of America (VOA) reported. The Pakistani and Chinese foreign ministries said the three nations had decided to institutionalize and hold the meeting regularly, VOA reported. Senior Chinese, Pakistani and Iranian counterterrorism officials, each from their respective foreign ministries, led their teams at Wednesday's dialogue. Analysts said Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province was likely an essential agenda item. The natural resources-rich but impoverished region is central to a multibillion-dollar Chinese-funded program, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), VOA reported. "The establishment of a trilateral security mechanism between China, Pakistan and Iran reflects their shared concerns regarding security in Baluchistan," observed Baqir Sajjad, a Pakistan fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington. Sajjad said stability in Baluchistan was crucial to successfully implementing CPEC projects there, VOA reported. "Collaboration among these countries can potentially contribute to improved regional security and counter the activities of insurgents who find refuge in Iran," he said. Baluchistan, a Pakistani province bordering Iran, has long experienced a low-level insurgency, led by outlawed ethnic Baluch groups. Islamabad alleges insurgents use sanctuaries on Iranian soil to orchestrate cross-border attacks in their bid to subvert CPEC, an extension of China's global Belt and Road Initiative. Iranian authorities deny the presence of Baluch militants on their soil, VOA reported. CPEC has built road networks and power plants across Pakistan and to the Arabian Sea deep-water Gwadar port in Baluchistan. Baluch insurgents oppose CPEC, alleging it is helping Pakistan's efforts to deprive the local population of the region's natural resources. They have carried out deadly attacks against Chinese nationals working on the projects in Baluchistan. China and Pakistan reject the charges as baseless and maintain the mega development project is bringing economic prosperity to the poverty-stricken province and Pakistan at large, VOA reported. Baluchistan abuts Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, where Iranian security forces are battling domestic Sunni-based militants blamed for deadly attacks in the predominantly Shiite Muslim country. Tehran alleges Islamabad is not doing enough to prevent militants from conducting cross-border terrorism into Iran, charges that Pakistani officials reject. Last month, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif travelled to the nearly 900-kilometre border between the two countries, where they jointly inaugurated a rare marketplace and power transmission line. While speaking at the ceremony, both leaders vowed to expand bilateral economic and border security cooperation, VOA reported. China has also boosted economic collaboration with Iran. The countries signed a 25-year strategic partnership agreement in March 2021. However, according to Iranian officials, the document contained no specific commitments on investment or security. Pakistan, Iran and China are also concerned about growing terrorist attacks in neighboring Afghanistan. The violence is mostly claimed by Islamic State's regional affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan, VOA reported. The three countries have stepped up diplomatic engagement with the conflict-ravaged country's Taliban rulers to help them tackle the threat and bring economic stability to Afghanistan. —ANI

 China, Iran and Pakistan held their first trilateral counterterrorism and regional security consultations on Wednesday 

Pakistan Accuses Iran Of Cross-Border Attacks As China Hosts Trilateral Counter-Terrorism Talks

Hong Kong: When China's President Xi Jinping floated the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, it was unclear what it actually entailed. Perhaps Xi did not know either, for there was not even consensus on its name - it was originally labelled the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and then One Belt, One Road. The BRI became a blue-ribbon project for Xi. Thus, his and, by extension, China's prestige became dependent on its success. Now, ten years on, China has had to tighten its belt and divert the road in new directions to keep the whole concept alive. Consequently, China announced three new initiatives in 2021-22 and, although still rather vague, these are directed at gaining greater influence over the Global South, accelerating the perception of US decline, and promoting China's warped perspective of international order. As Xi promotes his twisted form of obstreperous China-centric security designed to usurp the West, the Asia-Pacific region especially will increasingly become a battleground of ideologies. China is the world's largest private lender, yet nearly 60 per cent of Chinese overseas loans today are held by countries considered financially distressed. To put this in context, in 2010 this figure was just 5 per cent. China's BRI plight has been magnified by COVID-19 and the Ukraine war. Indeed, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine accounted for 20 per cent of China's overseas lending over the past two decades. China's lending boom has truly ended, plus struggling countries like Pakistan are asking for debt restructuring. The BRI peaked in 2018, five years ago. Although China is globally pushing its own take on security, development and digital governance, China is also, to a certain extent turning its focus inwards, returning to a centuries-old practice of retreating within its borders. China's narrative was that the BRI would increase connectivity and infrastructure. Indeed, China listed five priorities: coordinating policy; improving connectivity; reducing impediments to trade; integrating financial structures; and building people-to-people ties through exchanges/dialogues. However, it rapidly morphed into a hydra where absolutely any overseas project was subsumed under its umbrella. Around 2016, Chinese investment in rail, road, port and pipeline projects boomed, but China's economic woes have slowed down such efforts since 2018/19. There is also a noticeable trend from hard infrastructure projects towards digital infrastructure ones. Indeed, the BRI's future seems to rest on the Digital Silk Road (DSR), launched in 2015. As another tangent, the "Health Silk Road" projects intensified in 2020 as China exported COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies. Initially, BRI investment was directed towards Central Asia and Southeast Asia, before spreading westward and into Africa. Since 2018, Latin America and the South Pacific received a lot of attention. However, South Asia and Southeast Asia ultimately emerged as the main foci. Earlier this month, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) issued its annual Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment. Meia Nouwens, Senior Fellow for Chinese Security and Defense Policy at IISS, contributed a chapter entitled China's Belt and Road Initiative a Decade on. Nouwens discussed the implications for four key regions. Beginning in Southeast Asia, she said this region will remain Beijing's chief area of strategic importance. China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner since 2009, and the bloc has been China's largest trading partner since 2020. Maritime routes run through Southeast Asian chokepoints too, encouraging China to push railways as an alternative. Key recipients have been Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam. Naturally, China wants Southeast Asia to be non-aligned, to serve as a bulwark against American influence. However, China is not doing itself any favours with continual harassment of Philippine and Vietnamese commercial and law enforcement activities in the South China Sea. Western countries are leery of adopting Chinese 5G telecommunication networks, but this is not the case in many developing countries. Nonetheless, as China exerts tighter control over domestic private-sector technology companies, this will complicate their ability to execute projects overseas. The USA's stricter regulation of semiconductor and microchip technologies will also complicate China's ambitions. According to Nouwens, fear of economic dependency, ethnic tensions, project build quality and corporate social responsibility remain troubling issues for China. Ethnic tensions often result from beliefs that Chinese-led projects benefit migrant workers rather than the local population. In Indonesia, for instance, Chinese guest workers rose from 17,515 in 2015 to 30,000 in 2018. Considering the South Asia region, unsurprisingly it is Pakistan that has received the lion's share of BRI investment, absorbing more than half the money. China's heavy investment in road, rail and pipeline infrastructure through the Himalayas as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not paying economic dividends, however.  Indeed, it is far more expensive to transport products overland through Pakistan than by traditional sea routes. For instance, if shifting 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day via the Burma-China pipeline, and 250,000 barrels daily through the Pakistan-China pipeline, China would lose approximately USD1 billion per year compared to the traditional seaborne tanker route. Another estimate predicts that shipping oil from the Persian Gulf to China's east coast would cost USD2 per barrel, whereas it would cost USD15 per barrel via the Pakistan overland pipeline. Nouwens commented, "The BRI in South Asia has achieved its intended goal of exporting Chinese industrial overcapacity abroad. From 2010-18, for example, the value of Chinese industrial goods exports to Pakistan increased from USD3.1 billion to USD8.2 billion. Nevertheless, South Asian BRI projects have faced security, political, economic, geographic and governance challenges." Furthermore, "Chinese investments in the region have not necessarily created more favourable conditions for Beijing's influence. Chinese investment in South Asia has been one factor encouraging India to align more closely with the West, notably through the Quad."  As for Central Asia, boosting ties there is helping China develop its own poorer western provinces. From 2016-21, annual China-Europe freight train journeys snowballed from 1,702 to 15,183. Nonetheless, most trade between China and Europe still travels by sea (95+ per cent in Germany's case), and the Ukraine war has led to a 34 per cent drop in volume via the northern rail corridor. In the South Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand and the USA are very concerned about Chinese interests encroaching, especially since a 2018 uptick. One example is last year's Solomon Islands-China security agreement. Nonetheless, this oceanic region attracts only a tiny proportion of BRI funds, with the largest beneficiaries being Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Nouwens concluded, "Despite Chinese loans and grants to the sub-region, China and the BRI have made only a minimal impact in recipient Pacific Island states. There has not been any significant shift in Chinese investment or trade towards the sub-region, with the exception of Papua New Guinea. Exports from China to the South Pacific have increased twelvefold in value between 2000 and 2018, though the numbers for exports from Pacific Island countries to China have grown at a much less impressive rate." Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu are the most indebted islands to China, with Tonga owing about 25 per cent of its annual GDP to the Export-Import Bank of China. Interestingly, only Solomon Islands and Kiribati signed up for new Chinese loans between 2017 and 2021. By 2021, 64 per cent of BRI projects in Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and South Asia had been completed, according to Nouwen's research. A further 22 per cent of projects were ongoing, and the remaining 14 per cent were still in the planning stage. The BRI, therefore, looks rosy, right? Yet Nouwens pointed out, "...Judging implementation against these metrics risks overlooking both the fact that the last decade of BRI implementation has in some ways proved to be chaotic, and also the question of recipient countries' agency. The BRI's rollout in the last ten years has lacked central bureaucratic oversight and control or a coherent implementation strategy." The BRI was initially run under vague action plans, with existing projects simply rebadged as BRI ones. As Nouwens noted, "The reality of the BRI is that propaganda exceeds implementation, activity overtakes purpose, and actors further down the hierarchy have much latitude in interpreting the terms of their involvement. Instead of being seen as effective tools of statecraft, the BRI and DSR should perhaps be viewed as tools of the CCP's 'party craft'." For this reason, the BRI has not had the widespread impact that many Western leaders feared during its peak in 2016. "Importantly, the idea of debt-trap diplomacy turned out to be unproven, and China's investment in nearly 60 ports worldwide has not - contrary to the expressed fears of some commentators - provided it with immediate access to a global network of dual-use ports, let alone naval bases," the IISS researcher concluded. Elsewhere, Lee Jones and Shahar Hameiri, in a Chatham House August 2020 research paper entitled "Debunking the Myth of Debt-Trap Diplomacy", concluded "that the BRI is, in fact, motivated largely by economic factors. It has also shown that China's fragmented and poorly coordinated international development financing system is not geared towards advancing coherent geopolitical aims ... The BRI does not follow a top-down plan, but emerges piecemeal, through diverse bilateral interactions, with outcomes being shaped by interests, agendas and governance problems on both sides." China's confused efforts, exacerbated by economic woes, have offered Western alternatives a fortuitous window of opportunity. However, to date, neither the USA nor the West has been able to offer the level of investment that the BRI has. Additionally, Nouwens explained that "the notion that Beijing can leverage global debt as a strategic means to gain access to any and all strategic equity is a myth. Rather, it could be asked whether, instead of trapping sovereign countries in Chinese debt for strategic value, Beijing has inadvertently been caught in a debt trap of its own making." Fears of debt-trap diplomacy for client states have not really emerged. Ironically, China might be sufferings most from a debt trap, due to profligate and unregulated investment in the BRI's early years, and the economic difficulties being faced by many recipients. With the BRI facing stiffer headwinds, Xi has fine-tuned his prized BRI as he seeks to ram home perceived advantages. These three inchoate efforts are the Global Data Security Initiative (GDSI), Global Development Initiative (GDI) and Global Security Initiative (GSI). Discussing each in turn, the GDSI was launched in 2020. Under it, China proposes a framework for data security, data storage and digital commerce. The chameleon-like concept seems to oscillate between security and the digital economy, depending on China's target audience. The GDI was first mentioned by Xi at a UN General Assembly meeting in September 2021. Stated priorities are "poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccine, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy and connectivity". Although still unclear what the GDI actually is, more than 50 countries have joined the UN Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative. Naturally, the GDI propagates China's views on human rights (development is posited as a prerequisite for human rights, making human rights voluntary) and Xi's efforts to reshape global rules and norms (where the "greater good" means that the state's preferences override individual rights). As for the GSI, it was first proposed in April 2022, backed up by a 21 February 2023 concept paper. That paper listed six principles: common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security; respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously; peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation; and maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains. Observers of China will have seen such phrases routinely bandied about, such as in reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They will also know that these commitments are both vapid and downright disingenuous. Beijing has no intention of applying these principles to Ukraine or anywhere else, except when it is to its own advantage. The GSI seems to replicate China's concept of "Asia for Asians" in other regions, "which could potentially weaken the existing world order, as well as US capacity to help manage or resolve crises in other regions," according to Nouwens. The IISS senior fellow concluded: "These three initiatives aim to promote Chinese-centric norms and values in the Global South. This ambition will be particularly relevant in developing and emerging economies where China has invested heavily in development aid or infrastructure projects through the BRI and DSR. It also allows Beijing to continue to shape the international system in its favour at a time when large-scale infrastructure projects are not feasible due to economic conditions in China and questions of demand." "Beijing has previously argued that the BRI is 'an economic cooperation initiative, not a geopolitical or military alliance'. However, these three initiatives indicate that Beijing's engagement with the Global South is not just based on the provision of aid or helping to develop local economies; it is now expanding more formally to promote Chinese concepts of security, based closely on China's own concept of comprehensive national security, its 'golden prescription for global challenges' and development, and the storage, processing and transfer of data globally according to Chinese norms." As with BRI, it is a case of buyer beware for every initiative that China dreams up. —ANI

When China's President Xi Jinping floated the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, it was unclear what it actually entailed

As Decade-Old 'Belt And Road' Sags, China Evolves Onto Other Initiatives

Beijing: On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the launch of the ambitious CPEC infrastructure projects in the South Asian country for regional connectivity, Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that China will continue to work with its all-weather ally Pakistan to take their strategic ties to new heights.
<a href="https://www.thehawk.in/posts/death-toll-rises-to-54-in-suicide-blast-at-jui-f-political-convention-in-pakistan:-police" target="_blank">World News: Death Toll Rises To 54 In Suicide Blast At Jui-F Political Convention In Pakistan: Police</a> 
Xi said the USD 60 billion CPEC infrastructure programme is a "important pioneering project" of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in his congratulations message to the 'Decade of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor' (CPEC) commemoration event held in Islamabad on Monday.
India is opposed to the CPEC since it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on its way from the port of Gwadar in Balochistan to the province of Xinjiang in China.—Inputs from Agencies

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the launch of the ambitious CPEC infrastructure projects in the South Asian country for regional connectivity, Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that China will continue to work with its all-weather ally Pakistan to take their strategic ties to new heights.

The Hawk

Tag : CPEC

Anti-China sentiments developing in neighbouring countries

Sunil Aswal

The Hawk

Tag : CPEC

Anti-China sentiments developing in neighbouring countries

Sunil Aswal

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