Qaisar Mansoor
Pakistan and China are fraternal neighbors and all-weather strategic cooperative partners. The Chinese people refer to Pakistan by the endearing name of “Iron Pak,” meaning the China-Pakistan friendship is as solid as iron. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1951.
In the 1960s, then Pakistani President sent a political adviser to Beijing to discuss the possibility of seeking China’s assistance in building a highway along the ancient Silk Road. Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai agreed without hesitation that China would do it together with Pakistan.
It is what we now know as the Karakoram Highway, spanning a distance of 1,224 kilometers. With more than 600 kilometers in Pakistan built with Chinese assistance, it is the only land route between the two countries. It runs through the Himalayas, the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush and the Pamir Plateau.
The environment in the region was extremely harsh: oxygen scarcity was the order of the day; avalanches, mudslides and earthquakes happened all too often. But none of these held back the heroic construction workers. One of them recalled risking their lives to work hanging in mid-air off the side of a cliff. They would tie one end of the safety rope to their waists, climb up a cliff and look for a sturdy rock or tree to fasten the safety rope.
Then they would carry a ponderous pneumatic drill to drill holes on the rocks and put in dynamites to blast rocks and prepare the roadbed. All of these were done with the workers hanging in the mid-air. The hardship and danger was extraordinary. They often worked like this for hours without any water or a break, while keeping an eye on falling stones all the time.
China-Pakistan relations are an exemplary illustration of bilateral cooperation and mutual benefits. The two sides have built an “All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership”, while has witnessed the friendship flourish and look root in the hearts of their people.
Pakistan-China has supported each other in their fight against the COVID pandemic and pushed forward high-quality development of CPEC, while China has invested over $25 billion in Pakistan on CPEC projects generating 80,000 jobs, producing 5500 KW of electricity and building over 500kilometers of roads.
Pakistan endeavors to promote trade, transit and energy flows as well as people-to-people exchanges between Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia and China. Pakistan and China shares the eastern desire for peace in Afghanistan to share the dividends of peace and prosperity for the region and beyond. China has become Pakistan’s largest FDI contributor as well as largest trading partner.
The second phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) which took effect on 1st Jan 2020 has increased product coverage for trade liberalization. Now nearly 1,000 products enjoy zero tariffs in the respective markets providing further impetus for bilateral trade relation. PM Imran Khan is scheduled to visit China from 3-6 Feb 2022 to cement the bilateral ties between the two countries.
People of Pakistan sincerely hope that China will continue its historic march to achieve socialist modernization by 2035 and for building a modern, prosperous, beautiful, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious socialist country by 2049.
