According to the Pakistani side, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz will visit China for five days, and in addition to talks with the Chinese head of state in Beijing, he will also visit Xi'an on the mainland and Shenzhen, an outpost of reform and opening up. The main purposes of his trip are: first, to revive the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which has been stalled due to the epidemic and other reasons; The second is to discuss the issue of safety and security for the Chinese.
【Pakistani Prime Minister's Visit to China】
As a landmark project under the "Belt and Road" initiative, the achievements of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor are obvious to all, for example, one of the leading projects - Gwadar Port, in the past 11 years, the construction of Gwadar Port has achieved a lot of results, and its important strategic position in Pakistan's economy is self-evident.
However, due to frequent political, economic and security crises in Pakistan, the progress of CPEC has not been smooth, and it has even come to a standstill. At a time when Pakistan's economic situation is deteriorating day by day, the fiscal situation has become extremely fragile, and there is an urgent need to inject new economic vitality. On this basis, Shahbaz's visit to China is to promote the second phase of the corridor as soon as possible.
It should be added that during the previous visit to China, the Pakistani Minister of Development discussed with the Chinese side on the second phase of the plan, and finally the Chinese side adjusted the project accordingly based on the actual situation of Pakistan, and identified five new corridors in the second phase of the project, covering areas such as growth, people's livelihood, innovation, green and openness. In the second phase, Pakistan will achieve a strategic shift, including reducing government involvement and strengthening partnerships between the private sector and Chinese companies, the minister said.
[Terrorist attack on Chinese enterprise personnel in Pakistan]
But it's one thing to determine the plan, it's another to see if it's actually implemented. In recent years, terrorist attacks against Chinese, especially Chinese engineers, have occurred in Pakistan. In March this year, the personnel of a Chinese company in Pakistan were attacked three times in a week, the third of which was particularly tragic, resulting in the death of five Chinese personnel and one Pakistani personnel. Although Pakistan has been promising to strengthen security measures, it is undeniable that the hidden dangers that threaten China-Pakistan cooperation have not been completely eliminated. If we want to ensure that CPEC enters the second phase smoothly, the issue of Chinese security is a topic that cannot be avoided by the Pakistani side, and this topic will inevitably mention the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Immediately after the terrorist attack in March, the Pakistani side launched a comprehensive investigation and pursuit of the perpetrators, and finally targeted the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani interior minister stressed that they had gathered sufficient evidence to prove that the Pakistani Taliban had planned attacks on Chinese citizens, and that Pakistani had issued an ultimatum to Atta to hand over the Pakistani leader in order to maintain bilateral relations.
[Bata threatens to collect tolls from China]
In fact, Bata has always been a thorn in the coffin between Pakistan and the Taliban. According to a rough count, in 2023, there were 129 terrorist attacks across Pakistan, and 82% of these 129 attacks were planned by Bata. It is worth mentioning that Bata had previously extorted "tolls" from the Chinese side and said that he wanted to undermine the mainland's "One Belt, One Road" initiative. In late November, Commander Bata released a video warning that "5 percent tax will be paid anywhere" on roads and railways from China to the Arabian Sea, and that if they refuse, "Taliban fighters will target machines and crews" and destroy facilities.
And Atta's close relationship with Bata is no secret in itself. According to US media reports, Atta's General Intelligence Directorate (GDI) provides protection to several leaders of Bata and regularly gives Bata leader Nur Mahsud $50,000 per month as operating expenses; The report also shows that they transferred supplies and equipment left behind by US troops in Afghanistan, such as light weapons, ammunition, night vision equipment, etc., to Bata. In addition, a UN report earlier this year noted that Atta had not only provided weapons and assistance to Bata, but also had some members join him in cross-border attacks against Pakistan.
[Atta spokesman accuses Pakistan of undermining trust between China and Afghanistan]
However, Atta has been distancing himself from Bata, especially after the terrorist attacks against China, and Atta immediately came forward to condemn Bata's actions and refute the findings of Pakistan's investigation.
A few days ago, after the news broke that the Prime Minister of Pakistan was going to visit China, a spokesman for Atta again said that Afghanistan had "nothing to do" with the attack on Chinese citizens in March. He insisted that this was an internal affair for neighboring Pakistan itself, and accused Pakistan of undermining trust between Afghanistan and China. Before the Pakistani Prime Minister's visit to China, Atta was obviously worried that the Pakistani Prime Minister would say "bad things" about Atta in front of China, which would affect the cooperation between the Chinese side and him.
At present, Atta is eager to open up the Wakhan Corridor and join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, and if China is disappointed with the Taliban because of Pakistan's accusations, it will be difficult to achieve cooperation with China in a short period of time. But what Atta needs to understand is that this kind of "shouting grievances" drama has little effect, and that it is what he really needs to do to implement the promise of fighting terrorist forces.