Matrix Report
Speaking at the launching ceremony of Imtiaz Gul’s book “ What lies behind the iron brotherhood”, Mushahid Hussain Syed, shared that his relationship with Imtiaz Gul goes back nearly four decades and that the friendship has strengthened over the years. Also, he shared with the gathering his very strong connections with China in these words, “I don’t have a relationship with China, I have a romance with China”.
Below we are reproducing excerpts from his speech:
My association with China goes back when I was a student. I went to China heading a Pakistan China Youth Friendship Association (almost 50 years ago). I was 16, then. Since then, I’ve made almost 100 trips in the last four decades, and I’ve seen the transformation of China, under the China of Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai, the China of Deng Xiaoping and the China now under President Xi Jinping and this transformation is quite remarkable.
Quality of Leadership:
People often ask, what are the ingredients of the Chinese success story, as if there’s something special. I think there are three or four factors, which are extremely important. One has been the quality of leadership, it’s amazing. The quality of leadership has been amazing throughout that period, whether it’s the early Founding Fathers to the current premiership of Xi Jinping- the same tradition- that has been one important element.
Course Correction:
The second one, I think, is very important. And this is important in every country, in every society i.e, the ability to do a course correction. When you feel you are not on the right track, you can change course and say, reverse those rocks. And this is what the great leader Deng Xiaoping did. And I was very inspired by the book written by his daughter. It’s called “My father Deng Xiaoping”. Those who want to specialize in China, they should read that book. It’s so very inspiring. He was removed three times and he bounced back.
Humility & Ability To Learn:
The third element, which is very important is the humility and the ability to learn from others. This is a very important element of the Chinese success story, humility and the ability to learn from others, whether it’s Pakistan, Singapore or Philippines.
And the fourth element, I think is very key. China is not just a country, China is a civilization 5000 year old, a continuous civilization.
Cooperation and Connectivity Vs. Conflict & Confrontation:
Another very important factor of China’s success is its peaceful foreign policy. China has achieved that status that it is the only country in the history of mankind that has without invading, without conquering, without committing aggression has made phenomenal progress. And that is unique. And I’m reminded of this conversation between President Trump and President Jimmy Carter. And this was narrated by President Jimmy Carter in April 2018, to his Sunday church congregation in Georgia. He said he got a call from President Trump. And Trump tells him apart from the small talk, what do we do about China? China is moving ahead of us? China is moving so fast. How do we take on China? How do we confront China? And Carter says I told him, “I normalized relations with China 40 years ago. He said in the last 40 years, the US has been at war, fighting one war or the other all through this period. Conversely, China has been looking inward, peacefully developing its country, its society, its economy without going to war”.
And even now you can see that China has a very peaceful foreign policy. Out of 14 neighbors. China has signed boundary agreements with 12 of them. The only exception is India. And thanks to India, Bhutan, also because Bhutan is under Indian influence. After 9/11, America spent $6.45 trillion on the so called War on Terror, according to the Brown University, and 900,000 people were killed in the Muslim world, 37 million went homeless, 80,000 bombs, missiles and drones were rained down in Afghanistan. And conversely, in the same period, China invested $4 trillion in 3000 projects, including $2.1 trillion in the BRI generating 300,000 jobs, including 75,000 jobs in Pakistan. So that is the difference, cooperation and connectivity versus conflict and confrontation.
Propaganda against China:
And regarding this issue of propaganda against China, I would recommend very strongly two articles to understand better the facts and these are by American sources. One is the article which Fareed Zakaria had written in the Foreign Affairs, January-February 2020 issue called “The New China Scare”, where he basically looks at how this attempt is being made by the military industrial complex, to create a new enemy- actually not to create but to conjure up a new enemy- because China has not aggressed against anybody. And he mentions in his article that deep down, there’s also this feeling among the right wing hawks, that perhaps we can engineer or try to engineer some regime change.
And the second article is about China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), because there’s propaganda about CPEC also that it is a debt trap. The Atlantic, which is a monthly magazine from Washington, DC, carried an article on 6th of February 2021, written by two American academics, one from Yale and one from Harvard called, “The myth of the Chinese debt trap”, and it’s based on a case study of Hambantota, in Sri Lanka. Both the academics have called this so-called debt trap a “nonsense”. And this is what American academics are writing.
I think it’s important to separate fact from fiction, and what is propaganda and what is not right. As far as Pakistan, China are concerned, I think the relationship is so solid because it is based on a compatibility of congruent interests and compatibility of worldviews and values as we see the region and the world. This is one relationship which is not tactical, it is one relationship which is not transactional, it is one relationship that is not directed against anybody. And this is an amazing relationship.
Thank you.
