China okay with Pakistan's move to scrap CPEC Authority

PTI

Beijing, August 19

China on Friday tacitly endorsed Pakistan's decision to scrap the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority amid reports of growing rift between the all-weather friends over the slow pace of the $60 billion project and Islamabad's failure to provide credible security to hundreds of Chinese personnel working on a host of projects.

India’s concern

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will connect Gwadar Port in Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province. India objected to the corridor as it is being laid through Pak-occupied Kashmir

Trouble brewing

• Trouble brewing between all-weather friends with China getting critical of Pak’s failure in protecting its workers
• In April, three Chinese were killed in a suicide bombing at Karachi University by Baloch Liberation Army
• Beijing is also concerned over acute financial crisis faced by Pakistan, prompting it to step in periodically to bail it out

China has taken a note of the relevant information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here when asked about Pakistan government's decision to scrap the CPEC Authority, an official body constituted by the previous Imran Khan government.

“China understands the efforts of the Pakistani side dedicated to integrating resources, improving efficiency and adjusting institutions,” Wang said without directly stating whether Beijing has given consent to Pakistan on the scrapping of the CPEC Authority.

“We believe that future communications will be even closer and smoother and CPEC building will achieve the greatest results,” Wang said. Before the decision to scrap the CPEC Authority, Pakistan's Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque met China's External Security Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry Cheng Guoping on August 16.

While the details of the meeting were not disclosed, a Chinese Foreign Ministry press release said the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-Pakistan relations, counter-terrorism and security cooperation between the two countries, among other things.

On Wednesday, reports from Pakistan said PM Shehbaz Sharif has decided to abolish the CPEC Authority, but the decision “is subjected to getting the consent of China”, which reportedly spent so far about $28 billion on a host of CPEC projects, whose progress was stalled due reasons of security as well as tardy implementation by the Pakistan government.

Launched in 2015, CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of China's ambitious multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

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