The Chinese communist regime’s premier, Li Qiang, arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Oct.14 for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to discuss security and economic relations among member states.
The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, security, and defense organization led by China and Russia. Li Qiang is the first Chinese premier to visit Pakistan in 11 years, with his visit coinciding with the surge of terrorist attacks and violent protests in Pakistan.
U.S.-designated terrorist group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group accused some China-funded projects of plundering mineral resources from the country and stated that the targets are mainly thousands of Chinese people working on the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan.
The BRI, formerly known as “One Belt, One Road,” is Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s foreign policy project that launched in 2013. It aims to recreate ancient China’s Silk Road for trading with countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa. The initiative invests Chinese capital in the construction of various high-value projects in more than 60 participating countries.
In August, the BLA claimed responsibility for a day of multiple attacks in southwestern Pakistan, where more than 50 people were killed. The prime minister said the attacks targeted CPEC projects, as have some of the group’s previous attacks.
In 2022, the BLA claimed responsibility for a van explosion on a university campus in Pakistan that killed three Chinese nationals, including the director of a Confucius Institute and the van’s Pakistani driver.
In an August 2018 letter, the BLA claimed responsibility for opening fire on Chinese nationals working in Karachi and threatened more attacks if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not halt “the exploitation of Baluchistan’s mineral wealth and occupation of Baluch territory.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for the expansion of the BRI on Oct. 16.
“Flagship projects like the Belt and Road Initiative of ... Xi Jinping ... should be expanded focusing on developing road, rail and digital infrastructure that enhances integration and cooperation across our region,” Sharif said in his speech as the chair of the meeting.
Some geopolitical analysts and experts have criticized the BRI for setting up debt traps and causing debt crises for countries.
Kung Shan-son, assistant research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 15 that given the recent terrorist attacks on Chinese companies and citizens, “Li Qiang’s attendance of the meeting [is] meant to consolidate China–Pakistan relations, showing that both sides will not be affected by this incident ... doubling down on the BRI to show it.”
Yeh Yao-Yuan, assistant professor of political science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 15 that the countries in South Asia and the Middle East, especially those that have joined the Chinese regime’s BRI, “have a certain degree of resentment toward China, especially the Chinese people in their countries ... because the BRI promised huge investments and construction of infrastructure, but, in fact, it has not brought substantial job opportunities to the local areas, and many local people think that this is just a plunder of our local resources.”
Chen Shih-min, associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, pointed out on Oct. 15 that Pakistan’s government has a very good relationship with the CCP, “because the CCP has given Pakistan a lot of military and economic aid, such as weapons and loans.”
“The loans are of course mainly related to the BRI,” Chen said.
He said that the reason for the increasing anti-China sentiment of the Pakistani people is that “these loans didn’t bring any economic benefits to Pakistani people.” Instead, they increased Pakistan’s government’s debt to China.
Yeh said that Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries resent the CCP’s persecution of Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang, China.
“They can’t express it explicitly, because they need to cooperate with China,“ he said. ”For a country like Pakistan, which ... actually had a close relationship with the United States in the past, they naturally have greater sympathy for the suffering of the Uyghurs, and this sympathy has transformed into hatred of China.”
Yeh said that Pakistan faces a dilemma.
“Pakistan is actually a security ally of the United States. The reason why Pakistan is willing to cooperate with China amid the competition between the United States and China is that the relationship between the United States and India is getting closer,” he said. “So for Pakistan, India is its major opponent. So when the United States gets closer to India, Pakistan may also get closer to China. So I think Pakistan’s cooperation with China shows such a signal.”
Yeh said that it’s “smart” that the CCP is trying to win over Pakistan now “when India is moving closer to the United States.”
