“Chinese investment in the Gwadar port is purely economic,” said Hu Xijin, Editor-in-Chief of a leading Chinese daily, the Global Times, on Wednesday. He was speaking at a roundtable organised by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) on Pakistan-China relations with the editorial staff of Global Times. He added that, “China will make all necessary investments in the port to make it fully operational to support Chinese trade with West Asia, especially the trade between western part of China and that part of the world”.
Hu Xijin said China considers Pakistan an important friendly neighboring country and that Chinese investors want to invest in projects in Pakistan. He added, however, that some Chinese investors are apprehensive about the security situation in Pakistan. He said China will keep supporting the reconstruction of Afghanistan post-2014.
He also said China does not want to undertake projects in any country that are opposed by the host communities. Responding to a question about the imbalance in trade of China with Pakistan, Hu Xijin said China is a free market economy where the government cannot dictate the companies to import products from other countries if they are not market competitive.
Ashraf Azim, President of IRS, pointed out that Indian concerns about the use of Gwadar port as a naval base were completely baseless. He termed the transfer of the port operations to China Overseas Port Holdings Limited a great achievement of the current government. He emphasised the need for business and cultural links between Pakistan and China alongside cordial government-to-government relations.
Other participants of the roundtable discussion included Liu Yang, Senior Editor at the Global Times; Hu Jia, Editor at the Global Times; Li Ying, Editor at the Global Times English Edition and researchers from IRS.
