Pakistani Prime Ministers visit China principally to make themselves known to one of Pakistan’s most important allies. It is usually a feel-good visit, but this time the usual animity on political issues does not exist. While neither Pakistan nor China have budged in their respective attitudes to India, there is now a divergence in their attitudes to the USA. This probably reflects the different self-images that they have, with China seeing itself as a global player which can rival the USA, while Pakistan entirely lacks any such aspirations, and has all along seen itself as part of the US camp.
However, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be busy explaining to his Chinese interlocutors on his maiden trip to China, that Pakistan would not like to offend the USA by siding with China in its dispute with the USA, uppermost in his mind will be the other issues he wishes to raise, and which China would also want decided. On the day of Mr Sharif’s departure, the Bureau of Statistics released the October inflation figures, which were dismal. However, they would have shown to the government the need to focus on the economy, for the government has made much of the mishandling of the economy by the previous PTI government. Mr Sharif has also left behind him the PTI Long March, which may well have contributed to the political instability that has made China increasingly wary of Pakistan. Former PM Imran Khan is also supposed to have mismanaged relations with China, while Mr Sharif’s elder brother Nawaz, and he himself as Punjab CM, are thought to have done better in facilitating the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.
CPEC is important, because it is the lynchpin of China’s global posture. The Pakistani request for debt relief (which had been denied Sri Lanka, driving it to default) represents borrowing for CPEC. The modernisation of the Main Line from Karachi to Peshawar, which will represent a revival of CPEC, is necessary so that can send cargoes to Gwadar, apart from getting
Cargoes from it. Lack of attention by the previous government had led to CPEC virtually grinding to a halt, and the only obstacle to reviving it are awkward questions about the longevity of the government, and the security solution in Balochistan.
