CHINESE Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong’s latest remarks on different aspects of Sino-Pakistan relationship have widely been acclaimed by different segments of the society as they reflect deep commitment of his country to accelerated progress and development of Pakistan. He expressed not only readiness of China to strengthen further counter-terrorism and security cooperation with Pakistan but also conveyed firm resolve of President Xi Jinping to carry forward traditional friendship, strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, jointly build an upgraded version of CPEC, continuously deepen the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, stand shoulder-to-shoulder in facing global changes and build an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.
All this is surely a source of satisfaction for people of Pakistan as frantic efforts are being made by enemies of the two countries to cause a dent in the otherwise rock solid relationship. It is widely believed and rightly so that the Chinese work force engaged in developmental pursuits in Pakistan is being targeted as part of the sinister designs to undermine their mutually beneficial partnership but credit goes to the Chinese Ambassador for relaying clear signals to conspirators that their efforts would never succeed. As Chinese engineers and technicians are working on crucial development projects in different parts of the country, it is natural that their security should receive priority as has been emphasized by the envoy. He has a point in suggesting that the Pakistani side should speed up the investigation of the Bisham incident, resolutely crack down on and root out the evil of terrorism and create favourable conditions for advancing China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperation. Pakistan is already working on these lines as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif himself is looking into the security arrangements for Chinese nationals, which have been upgraded and Chinese have been associated with the ongoing investigations into the Bisham attack. Both the Government and people of Pakistan are fully convinced that the CPEC is contributing immensely to the socio-economic development of the country and it is important to create a congenial environment so that the historic initiative blossoms fully bringing fruits of progress to each and every corner of the country. It is encouraging that despite challenges of different sorts, the CPEC is now entering the new phase of building a corridor of growth, livelihood, innovation, greenness and openness and people of Pakistan would not allow its detractors to harm the process in any way.
