ISLAMABAD – The Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in PakistanLijian Zhao on Thursday defended the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) investment and said it was western countries that had pushedPakistan in a debt trap.
Rubbishing criticism of the CPEC published in the *New York Timeslink,*Zhaotook issue with the article’s argument that China is ensnaring Pakistan ina debt trap and said CPEC loans constituted only $6 billion of Pakistan’s$95 billion international debt. He also refuted the stated figure of $23billion owed to China.
In response to a section of the article that says China’s investment inPakistan comes with “military strings attached”, Zhao said the correct wayto phrase the cooperation between the neighbouring countries would be“defence cooperation and technology transfers”.
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“Strings are something like Washington Consensus that your master alwayspulls. BTW, Chinese defence cooperation with Pakistan is not new and hasbeen there since the 1950s,” the Chinese envoy said.
