Chinese ambassador rebuffed US allegations of corruption and concerns about more debt on Pakistan and maximum profit for China.
WASHINGTON: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Nov 23rd, 2019) The United States urged Pakistan to stay away from multibillion Dollar project of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), warning that it would push the country towards more debt and corruption, with maximum profit for China.
US Assistant Secretary Alice Wells said that CPEC was not about aid; it was always the form of loans or other forms of financing with no sovereign guarantees or guaranteed profts for Chinese state-own enterprises that were repatriated to China.
“It must be clear that CPEC is not about aid,” said Ms Wells while addressing an event held at Wilson Center, a Washington based think tank. Wells warned Pakistan of CPEC. “CPEC is a project which is a non-concessional with sovereign guarantees or maximum profit for Pakistan,” she said. She warned that China was going to take a growing toll on Pakistan’s economy as major payments would be made in the next four to six years.
Her speech came at the moment when Pakistan and the US are trying to rebuild their bilateral relations. The foreign policy experts believe that Wells’s speech is linked to the US policy against China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
She claimed that they would damage Pakistan’s economic development and constrain Prime Minister Imran Khan’s reform agenda if the loans payments were delayed in the project. She also said that CPEC projects lacked transparency which could increase projects costs, foster corruption and would lead the country towards more and more burden of debt.
Ms Wells was of the view that CPEC would not create jobs in Pakistan as the project primarily relied upon its own workers and supplies despite that there was huge unemployment in Pakistan. She also sought more transparency on the proposed link between Gwadar Port and Chin’s Xinjiang province when asked that India was thinking that it was military project just to encircle her in the region.
“US offered a better model for Pakistan and sought economic reforms for this purpose,” said Ms Wells, adding that “The US investment would improved the troubled economy,”. Referring to PM Khan’s meeting with US President Donald Trump in July, She said that Pakistan was offered to enhance American trade with Pakistan. However, she acknowledged that the state run companies of the US could not make investment in Pakistan and just made a claim that the US investment would improve its poor economy.
She said Uber, PepsiCo, Exxon Mobil and Coca-Cola and others including the soft-drink makers made investment of $1.3 billion in the country. She said the CPEC was an expensive project and initially its price was set at $8.2 billion. She quoted railways minister saying that they held negotiations with the Chinese for price down to $ 6.2 billion but the recent media reports suggested that CPEC price risen to $ 9 billion. “There is debt of $15 billion to the Chinese government on the way of the new government and d$ 6.7 billion in Chinese commercial debt,” said Ms Wells, adding that “The US was providing aid to Pakistan and what China was providing was not aid,”.
On other hand, China’s top diplomat rejected the US criticism on CPEC and gave point by point reply to the objections raised by the US assistant secretary of state here on Friday. China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said Sino-Pak relationship was mutually beneficial and based on “win-win cooperation” for both sides. The ambassador said that Pakistan would never ask Pakistan to replay its loans in time as compared to the IMF which was strict in its repayment system. He questioned the US assistant secretary of state as to why the aid fixed for Pakistan was suspended, adding that the project was giving jobs to Pakistanis.
“Around 2.3 million jobs are expected to be created in these projects by 2030,” said the ambassador while rebuffing US’s criticism on the project. He was speaking the 5th CPEC Media Forum in Islamabad on Friday. He said China was always there for Pakistan’s assistance in need without any political or government differences.
The Chinese ambassador said that China welcomed the US investment offer, saying that he would be more happy to see more investment coming from the United States in Pakistan. He said China was determined to build capacities of Pakistani businessmen and industrialists to boost productivity which would ultimately help in increasing local exports.
Under CPEC, the envoy said China would provide industrial cooperation to Pakistan and for this purpose over two dozen leading Chinese and Pakistani manufacturers and industrialists were engaged to boost production and exports of Pakistan.
Yao surprised at Alice Wells’ statement of higher tariff in power plants, established under CPEC, making it clear that he himself earlier briefed the US diplomat about the tariff structure of these plants. The tariff structure was the lowest among all the countries to whom Chinese companies provide electricity, he added.
He also said China made investment in power plants inside Pakistan in 2013 when there was huge shortage of electricity in the country and questioned that where the US was at that time. He also rejected the US allegations of corruption in CPEC, saying that it was easy to level allegations without evidences. About Railways’ cost, the Chinese Ambassador said that the project cost is around $9 billion; however, it was only estimation and not the final cost.
