SOME sections of western media and some western capitals continue with their China-bashing policy raising hue and cry over otherwise routine matters and sincerity of intentions by Beijing. Latest example is a video clip circulating on social media which has been termed by western media as evidence of ‘repression’ of Uygurs in North China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The issue was highlighted despite the fact that it was a normal judicial practice for local authorities to transfer prisoners.
As some vested interests find it next to impossible to impede China’s march on the road to economic prosperity and its inherent capacity and capability to become global economic and military power, they are resorting to mean propaganda in an effort to discredit China on the issue of human rights. All over the world, prisoners are handcuffed and they are accompanied by police officials to ensure their safe movement but this has been described as an extraordinary thing with reference to the said video clip. This bias against China was clearly visible during outbreak of Covid-19 when the World Health Organization (WHO) effusively praised China’s response to the spread of the virus but here again the western media referred to so-called restrictions on freedom of expression. This is despite the fact that WHO issued a statement welcoming the government’s ‘commitment to transparency’ and the WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, tweeted: “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response.”
Like undue criticism of ‘One Belt, One Road’ Initiative and pressure being mounted on Pakistan to either scrap CPEC or slow down progress of the projects being implemented under the historic initiative, recent Sino-Iran deal worth 400 billion dollars is also being painted black whereas the agreement between the two sovereign countries has the potential to change landscape of Iran and have salutary impact on overall regional environment. As against the US policy of isolating countries and placing them under undue unilateral sanctions, China is engaging countries in mutually beneficial economic and security cooperation. It is propagated that China has aspirations for global influence and that its BRI Initiative is actually ‘debt-trap’ diplomacy but Beijing’s cooperative mode has helped many countries lift their economic status and overcome their crippling problems and challenges like end of load-shedding in Pakistan. China has no aggressive designs against any country and instead it makes investment in different countries and parts of the globe as per vision of its leadership – shared prosperity. This is confirmed from what the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said on Thursday while speaking at a webinar on Pak-China cooperation in post-pandemic era. His statement highlighted some of the gains Pakistan has made because of its participation in BRI. He pointed out that 13,000 Chinese technicians, engineers and experts are working on CPEC projects which employ over 60,000 Pakistanis.
There were massive displacements because of Covid-19 but not a single Pakistani was laid off despite intensity of the virus and its impact on projects and economic activities. President Arif Alvi too has highlighted the immense benefits that would accrue to Pakistan because of game-changer project of CPEC. While rubbishing the criticism on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he said that the multifaceted gigantic project was neither meant for exploitation nor overburdening Pakistani’s economy, rather it would enable the country to strengthen its economic position. Similar views were also expressed by Prime Minister Imran Khan who observed that in view of its strategic importance, the Gwadar Port, being developed under CPEC, would be a guarantor of future development and prosperity. China is also being maligned on account of Hong Kong and South China Sea despite the fact that these are pure internal issues of the country and Beijing, like other countries, was entitled to take measures aimed at internal cohesion and boosting of national security. Therefore, instead of wasting their energies on China-bashing, the critics should focus on their own lop-sided policies and strategies that are the real cause of their growing alienation in the world.
