Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng kickstarts 3-day visit to Pakistan

Islamabad [Pakistan]: Vice Premier of China, He Lifeng, arrived in Pakistan on Sunday for a three-day visit, where he will take part in a ceremony to commemorate the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project’s tenth anniversary, Dawn reported.

The celebration will take place for the disputed CPEC project despite the looming economic crisis that has gripped Pakistan due to increasing Chinese loans in the country. During his Pakistan visit, Lifeng would also hold meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Dr Arif Alvi during the visit.

Notably, CPEC is a flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Beijing’s international infrastructure investment programme, known as the BRI, a term established by China’s Xi Jinping in 2013, was created to rebuild China’s Silk Road, which linked Asia with Africa and Europe in order to boost trade and economic development, as per CNN.

Each year, the effort has seen billions of dollars poured into infrastructure projects, including the construction of ports from Sri Lanka to West Africa, the paving of motorways from Papua New Guinea to Kenya, and the provision of power and telecoms infrastructure for people in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

In 2019, Italy became the only major Western country and the only country from the G7 group of advanced economies to join the BRI.

Quoting the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan, Dawn reported that Lifeng has played a “prominent role” in China’s international economic relations and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

He was “instrumental in the planning and execution of multiple CPEC projects in Pakistan” while serving as chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission from 2017 to 2023, the Foreign Office had stated.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion dollar project was introduced in 2013 and quickly dubbed the flagship extension of the Belt and Road Initiative. Pakistanis hoped that this new development program will bring change and turn the country into a regional hub.

However, the investment has only had debilitating impact on the South-Asian country.
Balochistan, an impoverished province with significant mineral potential, continued to bear the brunt of the CPEC projects being built on its territory with no expectation of financial gain. This sense of exclusion has fuelled a mass rebellion in Balochistan against the CPEC.

Pakistan’s economic troubles have deepened in recent years, with some critics blaming CPEC investments as a main contributing factor.