Western& India anti-BRI propaganda & reality
CHINA-Pakistan Economic Corridor being one of the important parts of the Belt & Road Initiative has faced a lot of challenges since its announcement.
The multi-billion project preceded China’s Belt and Road Initiative first announced in the summer of 2013.
The focus was on connecting China with the Chinese-invested Pakistani port of Gwadar through highway, rail and pipeline infrastructure.
Project plans had a five-year horizon for implementation, and the sums involved — ranging between ten and twenty billion USD – were moderate compared to China’s current ambitions in Pakistan.
These activities were later reframed as part of “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor” (CPEC), which was only officially launched in April 2015 while China’s President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan. Emphasis shifted towards power generation in Pakistan, and estimated costs ballooned to 46 billion USD.
The two governments then drew up a “Long Term Plan,” starting in 2017 and drastically expanding the projected timeline for implementation up to 2030.
Projected costs moved up to 62 billion USD, and Pakistani officials have since mentioned even higher numbers.
Since its announcement and till now there has been great progress and 32 projects of CPEC have been completed successfully from infrastructure to energy and now the second phase of CPEC has started also known as CPEC 2.0 where the Special Economic Zones will be established.
A lot of propaganda from India and Western countries especially USA has been increasing to sabotage the CPEC especially hurdle the Chinese companies and government to work in Pakistan and change the public opinion by slow poisoning the youth and Pakistan common people in the remote areas e.g., China will take over Pakistan Economy, CPEC is debt trap.
To this extent the propaganda initiated and now the allegation by US on China that it has been funding the terrorists and non-state actors to attack the US forces in Afghanistan came in the beginning of Year 2021 and it was highlighted in the news dailies.
This unconfirmed information came at a time when President Trump was himself being impeached for second time and during his presidency, he left no chance to defame China in the international arena.
First, he banned the Chinese companies including Huawei and Chinese Apps and then trying to stop the world 2nd biggest economy in a fear that it might become Top economy in the world in near future.
If so happens, the landlord-ship of America will be over in the region and China will lead the East.
It has started grooming and supporting India to compete China and Pakistan in the region.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin strongly condemned this describing the accusation as slanderous and said it was “completely nonsense and completely fake news.”
In the regular press briefing, Wang said China “has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace” and “never initiated a war to others, let alone funded non-state actors to attack other countries.
” While we see US allegations on China, if we look into the ground reality, it’s totally different.
The flag bearer of peace and democracy US and Allies have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and many more countries.
The only aim to occupy the natural resources of those countries including oil, minerals and to control the regional politics is to stop China’s hold in the region by trying to fail the Belt & Road Mega Project imposing a war on the countries along BRI.
The whole propaganda has a set back as a report comes out that in the recent events the evidence has proved that Australian army following the overthrow of the Taliban, as part of a US-led coalition, was involved in unlawful killings of innocent civilians since 2002.
It said 25 special forces soldiers had taken part in unlawful killings directly or as “accessories”, across 23 separate incidents as some junior soldiers had allegedly been coerced to shoot unarmed civilians to get their “first kill” – a practice known as “blooding”.
There is “credible evidence” that Australian elite soldiers unlawfully killed 39 people “prisoners, farmers or civilians” during the Afghan war.
Weapons and radios had then been allegedly planted to support claims that the victims had been enemies killed in action deemed as “deliberate, repeated and targeted war crimes”
“The US, Australia, UK, and other countries with an armed presence in Afghanistan should respond to these reports, and to investigate their forces’ participation, and leadership, of acts of violence against Afghan non-combatants,”.
And US and its allies need to stop pointing fingers at China as China always supports peace and development of the region and the globe.
China Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC an important part of Belt and Road Initiative has been progressing with full swing and peace in Afghanistan and peaceful solution of Kashmir issue is important for the regional development and long-lasting peace.
—The writer is based in China, occasionally contributes to the national press.
