Pakistan: Incoming Prime Minister Vows to Protect Chinese Belt and Road Investments on First Day

The newly minted prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, used his first speech as the head of the country’s government on Monday to promise China its investments in the country would be safe on his watch.

Sharif became prime minister after a dramatic battle in the past month to force a no-confidence vote against his predecessor, Imran Khan, a radical Islamist who called for global blasphemy laws but endorsed the genocide of Muslims in China. Khan attempted to dissolve Parliament to prevent the vote, but authorities branded his move unconstitutional and let the vote move forward on Sunday, forcing him to vacate the position.

Chinese businesses capitalized greatly on ties with Pakistan during Khan’s tenure, particularly through investing in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the local Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project. The BRI is a global dept trap plan that China claims is intended to reconstruct the Ancient Silk Road, which connected eastern China to western Europe. The territory now known as Pakistan was a critical portion of the Ancient Silk Road, but the project has struggled against terrorist attacks by local jihadists even with support from Khan.

Sharif – younger brother of Khan’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – had stated before taking on the top office that he was interested in improving ties with the United States that Khan had damaged through anti-American belligerence, including openly praising Osama bin Laden. Sharif had outraged some in Pakistan by explaining his desire to foster closer relations with America with the idiom, “beggars can’t be choosers.”

Following his swearing-in ceremony, however, Sharif reportedly emphasized diplomacy and business with China.

Supporters of newly elected Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif celebrate at the party office in Rawalpindi on April 11, 2022. (FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP via Getty)

“There should be no doubt that China and Pakistan are time-tested friends and nobody can separate us,” Sharif reportedly said, according to India’s WIO News. “It will last till the Judgment Day. I assure that CPEC will go onwards at Pakistan’s speed. Thankful to President Xi Jinping.”

In contrast, Sharif reportedly addressed America only by acknowledging that, under Khan, “there were hiccups” in bilateral ties – “some confusion, some ups and downs.”

The Chinese state propaganda newspaper Global Times enthusiastically repeated Sharif’s vow of support for Beijing in its pages on Tuesday.

“Shehbaz Sharif promised to vigorously promote the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in a speech after winning the election on Monday, according to media reports,” the Times repeated. “Shehbaz had previously spoken highly of the CPEC several times, calling it an ambitious blueprint to transform Pakistan into a major emerging economy so that the less developed parts of the country could enjoy the dividends of development.”

Chinese government-approved “experts” told the Global Times that Sharif making time for the CPEC in his first remarks as prime minister “highlighted the importance he attached to the relationship” with the Chinese Communist Party.

“In fact, the CPEC has been through several changes of government since its establishment, but it has always been highly appreciated and promoted by the Pakistani side,” researcher Long Xingchun told the Times, “which shows that the project is a reflection of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and also helps the two countries and the people of the region.”
Prior to Khan’s ouster, the Chinese government, through its propaganda arms, echoed Khan’s claims that the United States had organized the no-confidence vote as part of a foreign conspiracy because of his attempts to improve relations with Russia. Khan brandished a “foreign conspiracy letter” that he claimed was a diplomatic cable detailing an American plot to remove him, which the U.S. government denied. Chinese media outlets keenly reproduced the claims.

Labourers read morning newspapers along a roadside in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on April 12, 2022. Pakistan lawmakers on April 11 elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s new prime minister following the weekend ouster of Imran Khan, who resigned his national assembly seat — along with most of his party members — ahead of the vote. (RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP via Getty Images)

“[O]f course, as Khan mentioned, some external forces, especially those from the US, are interfering in the domestic affairs of the South Asian nation,” the Global Times alleged last week. “Zhao Gancheng, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies (SIIS), told the Global Times that Washington has failed in its attempts to rope in Khan, so it is possible it now has meddled in Pakistan’s politics to topple the current government.”

Despite defending Khan from imagined American intervention, Chinese officials immediately embraced Sharif. The Global Times speculated Shehbaz Sharif could be “even better” for China than Khan.

“The potential successor of Khan is from the Sharif family which has been promoting China-Pakistan ties for a long time, and cooperation between the two countries could be even better than under Khan,” the Times observed prior to Sharif formally being sworn in as prime minister.

On Tuesday, the first opportunity it had to address Sharif’s ascent, the Foreign Ministry heartily embraced the new prime minister.

“We congratulate Mr. Shahbaz Sharif on his election as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. China and Pakistan are all-weather comprehensive strategic cooperative partners with rock-solid and unbreakable relations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters. “China looks forward to working together with the Pakistani side, carrying on the traditional friendship, deepening cooperation in various areas and building a high-quality China-Pakistan Economic Corridor together to build an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.”

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