The April 20 issue of South China Morning Post explores the policy orientations of the incoming Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (not to be confused with his brother Nawaz Sharif, who was three times prime minister). Contrary to initial fears, the ousting of Imran Khan, who irritated London and Washington for his cooperation with both China and Russia, will not affect China-Pakistan cooperation, and may even bolster it.
“Within minutes of being declared Pakistan’s new PM,” writes Hong Kong’s daily SCMP, “Shehbaz Sharif made clear his intention to breathe new life into the estimated$60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It was no coincidence that a Chinese embassy delegation was among the first callers on Sharif.”
CPEC, one of the early pillars of the Belt and Road Initiative, was announced by President Xi Jinping when he visited Islamabad in April 2015. At that time, Zhao Lijian, currently a Foreign Ministry spokesman, was the deputy chief of mission at the Embassy in Islamabad. Zhao is well-acquainted with Sharif, who, as then Chief Minister of Punjab province, was deeply involved in negotiating which infrastructure projects would be built there during the “early harvest” phase of the 15-year CPEC scheme. Zhao and Sharif went on to attend dozens of meetings on the CPEC over the three years up to 2018. (The CPEC corridor roughly extends from China’s Xinjiang Province near the Pakistan border, south through Peshawar, and on southward to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar.)
According to SCMP, “despite pressure from both Beijing and the Pakistani establishment, Khan and his PTI-led government never embraced the CPEC during its three and a half-year rule.” Even worse, “Activity under the Chinese-funded program slowed to the point that most under-construction projects fell far behind schedule, while no new major projects were launched.”
