NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD – Pakistani Air Force and Chinese officials are puttingthe final touches on a plan to expand Pakistan’s building of Chinesefighter jets, weaponry and other hardware, The New York Times reportedThursday in a long dispatch claiming that Beijing’s “Belt and Road” planwas taking a “military turn”.
The dispatch said that the newspaper had “reviewed” the confidential planwhich it says also envisages the cooperation between China and Pakistan inspace.
“All those military projects were designated as part of China’s Belt andRoad Initiative, a $1 trillion chain of infrastructure developmentprogrammes stretching across some 70 countries, built and financed byBeijing,” Times’ correspondent Maria Abi-Habib wrote from Islamabad.
Pointing out that Chinese officials had insisted that the Belt and Road waspurely an economic project with peaceful intent, the Times said, “But withits plan for Pakistan, China is for the first time explicitly tying a Beltand Road proposal to its military ambitions — and confirming the concernsof a host of nations who suspect the infrastructure initiative is reallyabout helping China project armed might.
“As China’s strategically located and nuclear-armed neighbour, Pakistan hasbeen the leading example of how the Chinese projects are being used to giveBeijing both favour and leverage among its clients, correspondent Abi-Habibwrote.
Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, it was pointedout, Pakistan has been the programme’s flagship site, with some $62 billionin projects planned in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In theprocess, the dispatch said, China has lent more and more money to Pakistanat a time of economic desperation there, binding the two countries evercloser, as the chill in US-Pakistan relations deepened.
The Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy Islamabad Lijian Zhao ina tweet to Maria Abi-Habib; the Staff correspondent at The New York Times,covering South Asia termed the article “Joke of the year,” and said “It wasthe western countries which pushed Pakistan into that trap.”
linkLijian Zhao 赵立坚✔@zlj517linklink
3. Western propaganda against BRI & CPEC takes an ugly turn. It is nowsaying there are military strings. CPEC is the flagship project of Belt &Road Initiative & purely an economic program – as its name suggests. Thisis beyond western thinking of unilateralism & zero sum game.Maria Abi-Habib✔@Abihabib
In Pakistan, China’s massive Belt and Road investments come with militarystrings attached, documents obtained by the Times reveals. Our months-longinvestigation here: #china #pakistan #CPEC #OBOR https://nyti.ms/2GutBQB?smid=nytcore-ios-share …link11:55 PM – Dec 20, 2018link
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He described it as “an article full of wrong numbers and lies. CPEC loan toPakistan is only $6 billion instead of $23 billion. It is only 6% of totaldebt of Pakistan of $95 billion. Is this a debt trap?”
He also rubbished the claim in the New York Times report which claimed thatin Pakistan, China’s massive Belt and Road investments come with militarystrings attached.
Lijian Zhao said “it is in fact the defense cooperation & technologytransfers, not strings.”
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“Strings are something like Washington Consensus that your master alwayspulls. BTW, [By The Way] Chinese defense cooperation with Pakistan is notnew &has been there since 1950s.”
He said the Western propaganda against BRI ad the CPEC has taken an uglyturn and termed it purely an economic program.
“It is now saying there are military strings. CPEC is the flagship projectof Belt & Road Initiative & purely an economic program – as its namesuggests. This is beyond western thinking of unilateralism & zero sum game.”
Even before the revelation of the new Chinese-Pakistani militarycooperation, the Times said, some of China’s biggest projects in Pakistanhad clear strategic implications, citing the Chinese-built seaport andspecial economic zone in Gwadar that gives China a quicker route to getgoods to the Arabian Sea. “But it also gives Beijing a strategic card toplay against India and the United States if tensions worsen to the point ofnaval blockades as the two powers increasingly confront each other at sea,”Correspondent ab-Habib wrote.
A less scrutinized component of Belt and Road is the central role Pakistanplays in China’s Beidou satellite navigation system, it was pointed out.Pakistan is the only other country that has been granted access to thesystem’s military service, allowing more precise guidance for missiles,ships and aircraft.
“The cooperation is meant to be a blueprint for Beidou’s expansion to otherBelt and Road nations, however, ostensibly ending its clients’ reliance onthe American military-run GPS network that Chinese officials fear ismonitored and manipulated by the United States,” according to the dispatch.
“The focus of Belt and Road is on roads and bridges and ports, becausethose are the concrete construction projects that people can easily see.But it’s the technologies of the future and technologies of future securitysystems that could be the biggest security threat in the Belt and Roadproject,” Priscilla Moriuchi, the director of strategic threat developmentat Recorded Future, a cyber threat intelligence monitoring company based inMassachusetts, was quoted as saying.
The tightening China-Pakistan security alliance has gained momentum on along road to the Arabian Sea, the dispatch said.
According to the undisclosed proposal drawn up by the Pakistani Air Forceand Chinese officials at the start of the year, it said, a special economiczone under CPEC would be created in Pakistan to produce a new generation offighter jets. For the first time, navigation systems, radars and onboardweapons would be built jointly by both countries at factories in Pakistan.
The proposal, confirmed by officials at the Ministry of Planning andDevelopment, would expand China and Pakistan’s current cooperation on theJF-17 fighter jet, which is assembled at Kamra Aeronautical Complex, givingPakistan an alternative to the American-built F-16 fighters, according theTimes.
The plans are in the final stages of approval by Prime Minister ImranKhan’s government, it said.
“For China, Pakistan could become a showcase for other countries seeking toshift their militaries away from American equipment and toward Chinesearms,” the report cited Western diplomats as saying, a deal which Timessays could be a steppingstone to a bigger market for Chinese weapons in theMuslim world.
For years, it said, some of the most important military coordinationbetween the two neighbours has been going on in space.
