- Reluctant to invest in the region, US opposes CPEC
Realising the gravity of the financial crunch Pakistan is currently facing China has endorsed its decision to seek IMF support. Beijing has however expressed the hope that the Fund would make an objective and professional evaluation of Pakistan’s situation to help it. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman meanwhile has deemed it necessary to raise two points. The first is addressed to the IMF and the second to whom so ever it may concern.
China has deemed it necessary to nail the canard spread by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and repeated by his spokesperson Heather Nauert holding China responsible for the heavy burden of debt that has sent Pakistan knocking at the IMF’s door. Recalling Pakistan finance ministry’s figures, the Chinese spokesman has clarified that the debt incurred by CPEC makes up a very small proportion of the country’s debt composition and it is not to blame for the current financial difficulties faced by the country. Apprehensive of the fast economic growth of China and its rising clout in the world the US has on the one hand imposed a trade war on Beijing and on the other it has initiated a smear campaign against the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its centerpiece the CPEC.
China has cautioned that the IMF programme should not affect economic cooperation between Islamabad and Beijing as both countries are to benefit from it without harming the interests of any third country. It was necessary to underline the point as the US could try to manipulate the IMF to sabotage the CPEC.
While defending the CPEC the PTI government should take Parliament into confidence about the important details regarding the Corridor agreement including the volume and the terms and conditions of the loans procured by Pakistan and the investments made by China. One also expects that whatever domestic apprehensions persist about the CPEC would be dispelled when the PM visits China next month to sign a framework agreement on industrial zones, progress on agricultural cooperation and addition of a social sector joint working group as desired by Pakistan.
