ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has emerged as the new front for the global rivalrybetween the United States and China as the two powers jostle to shape the21st century.
Chinese officials have angrily reacted to the criticism of theirmultibillion-dollar infrastructure and energy investments, collectivelycalled the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), by a senior U.S.diplomat last week.
“They are a mere repetition of old slanders against China,” Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman Geng Shuang told journalists on November 25.
His remarks followed blazing criticism of CPEC, a flagship project ofBeijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), by Alice Wells, actingassistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs.
“Together with non-CPEC Chinese debts payments, China is going to take agrowing toll on the Pakistan economy,” she told a think tank audience inWashington on November 21. “Especially when the bulk of payment starts tocome due in the next four to six years.”
Andrew Small, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund, a Washingtonthink tank, says recrimination between Chinese and U.S. officials must beviewed in the context of intensifying global Sino-U.S. rivalry and anAmerican pushback against the BRI.
In May, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lambasted Beijing for peddling“corrupt infrastructure deals in exchange for political influence” andusing “bribe-fueled debt-trap diplomacy.” Since late 2017, senior U.S.officials have *criticizedlink*Beijing’strillion-dollar infrastructure plans under the BRI umbrella aimed atlinking China to Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East through road,rail, and sea links./**/ /**/ [image: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan (L) chats withChinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) during a signing ceremony at the Great Hallof the People in Beijing, on October 8.]link
Given that CPEC is the ‘flagship’ of the BRI, it was inevitably going to bea focal point at some stage — and its status means that Beijing is alsoextra-sensitive about any criticism,” Small told RFE/RL’s Gandhara website.
He says the detailed criticism of CPEC that Wells offered is part ofWashington’s “increasingly critical view of the BRI financing anddevelopment model as it has played out on the ground in Pakistan andelsewhere.”
Wells argued that CPEC, as the $60 billion Chinese infrastructure andenergy investments are collective known, will only benefit Beijing. CPECaims to connect Xinjiang in western China to the Arabian seaport of Gwadarin Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province through infrastructure andenergy links.
“It’s clear, or it needs to be clear, that CPEC is not about aid,” shesaid. “CPEC relies primarily on Chinese workers and supplies, even amidrising unemployment in Pakistan,” Wells added as she made a case for analternative U.S. model to help with improving the fundamentals ofPakistan’s troubled economy.
But Yao Jing, the Chinese ambassador in Islamabad, said Wells lacked”accurate” knowledge and instead relied on Western media “propaganda” incriticizing CPEC.
“I would like to remind my American colleague that if you are really makingthis kind of allegation, please be careful, show your evidence, give meevidence; we will take action,” he told journalists on November 22. “Chinawill never, ever ask for these loan repayments as long as you are in needof this money. If Pakistan needs it, we keep it here.”
Marvin Weinbaum, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan studies atWashington’s Middle East Institute think tank, agrees that the recent U.S.criticism of China’s involvement in Pakistan folds into its rivalry withBeijing.
“While many of Well’s criticisms of CPEC carry validity, these criticismsare viewed in Pakistan’s policy circles as reflecting U.S. frustrationabout being left behind as China extends its economic and politicalinfluence,” he told Gandhara./**/ /**/ [image: FILE: Ormara, a small town on Makran coast is is home toa Pakistani Naval base.]link
Weinbaum says that during his recent trip to Islamabad this month hedetected a more realistic understanding of the Chinese investment but CPECcontinues to be viewed as benefiting Pakistan overwhelmingly.“Notwithstanding, Islamabad still values its relationship with Washingtonand does not feel it has to choose between the two powers,” he noted.
Small agrees but cautions against viewing the U.S. and Chinesedisagreements over CPEC as an all-out war for influence in Pakistan, RadioFree Europe has reported.