China’s growing profile

Business Recorder op-ed writer M. Ziauddin in his article “China — the leading global developer” carried by the newspaper on April 4 had argued, among other things, that “Over the next ten years Pakistan is estimated to displace Russia from its top Chinese aid recipient position ($36.6 billion) as Islamabad is expected to consume as much as $ 60 billion between 2017 and 2027 absorbing around a billion dollar a year on an average. The bulk of this assistance is related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).Between 2000 and 2014 Pakistan, at $24.3 billion was the second largest recipient of Chinese assistance followed by Angola at $16.6 billion.”

The writer, who has painstaking gleaned these facts from the AidData research lab of the US college of William and Mary,” has indeed advanced a fascinating argument in this regard. He has, however, preferred not to draw parallels between China and Russia or China and the then Soviet Union and China and Pakistan relationships. Both Russia or the Soviet Union and Pakistan constitute different histories for China. It was the then Soviet Union under Josef Stalin that introduced China to industry or industrialization. China owes to both the then Soviet Union and its successor state the Russian Federation in a variety of manners. There is however little or no doubt about the fact that the second half of the 21st century will be characterized by China’s dominance in all areas of human activity.

Karachi Naqi Zafar