For the first time in bilateral relations, a Chinese ambassador has publicly used phrases such as “unacceptable” and “security is the biggest concern” when spelling the way forward for CPEC.
“It is very unacceptable for us to be attacked twice in only six months and these attacks have also caused casualties. ..President Xi cares about Chinese people’s security and puts people’s lives first. He especially cares about the security of the Chinese people in Pakistan,” Ambassador Jiang Zaidong said during a speech at a recent seminar (Oct 30).
The fact that the ambassador wove President Xi’s “concerns for the safety of the Chinese working in Pakistan” into his public speech reflects a new way of asking Pakistan to do something better for the Chinese workers busy on projects here.
The two incidents the ambassador referred to were the one in March when a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver as they headed to the Dasu Dam, the country’s biggest hydropower project. The second incident was the killing of two Chinese officials in a targeted attack as they were leaving the Karachi airport on October 7.
Every time when he (President Xi) meets with Pakistani leaders he asks to take measures to ensure the security of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects …security is the biggest concern for China and a constraint to CPEC in Pakistan, said Ambassador Jiang, urging Pakistan authorities to severely punish the perpetrators and crack down on all anti-China terrorist groups.
Ambassador Jiang said “President Xi always says that security is the guarantee of development and development is the guarantee of security. With joint efforts, we could crack down on those terrorist groups,” said Ambassador Jiang.
During his Pakistan visit, Premier Li Qiang also emphasized the importance of security for economic development and cooperation and promised to further deepen economic cooperation with Pakistan but only if Pakistan could create a “conducive and safe environment” for the Chinese people.
Beijing also hopes that “the Pakistani side could further strengthen the security measures to protect Chinese personnel, institutions and projects,” Ambassador Jiang Zaidong said in a tone untypical for Chinese diplomats. The ambassador even responded to an observation that Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar made during his speech. In fact, this was a strong exception that the Chinese ambassador took to Dar’s cajoling remarks.
“The Chinese are very clear, no matter how lucrative an investment is anywhere, if the security issue is there, they do not send Chinese personnel. Your country is the only exception. This is what the Chinese leadership told the Prime Minister of Pakistan in my presence”, Ishaq Dar said.
But in an unusual move, Ambassador Zaidong made it a point to respond to Dar’s statement and underlined that the lives of Chinese workers are of paramount importance to the top leadership and that “security is the biggest constraint to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and without a safe and sound environment nothing can be achieved.”
This amounted to a strong snub to Dar and other Pakistani leaders who keep touting CPEC as a game-changer without caring for the elaborate planning and security mechanisms that are required for the volatile environment that Pakistan is in.
The Karachi incident on October 6, it seems, was the red line for China and a watershed moment in Sino-Pak relations. By using a public forum to issue an unusually strong statement on the state of security and the Chinese expectations of Pakistan on this count, Ambassador Zaidong delivered a categorical message; things cannot go on as usual anymore. CPEC can not move forward without an elaborate and mutually agreeable security mechanism.
