BEIJING: China on Monday rejected the United States’ criticism of the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying Washington had “evil intentions” and was trying to “drive a wedge” between Beijing and its all-weather ally Islamabad.
The top US official for South Asia Alice Wells had last week said the CPEC, which is the flagship project of President Xi Jinping’s multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), would increase Pakistan’s debt burden and benefit only China.
However, Beijing brushed aside the criticism on Monday.
“No matter what the US says or does or how it tries to spoil the CPEC development, we will work together with Pakistan to develop CPEC and advance our all-weather strategic cooperative partnership to bring more benefits to Pakistani people and deliver more benefits to the region and beyond,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Monday.
“I am afraid, the problem is with certain people in the US with evil intentions,” Geng said, arguing that the CPEC is, in fact, helping Pakistan’s economy.
“China and Pakistan have clarified and refuted such smears time and again. However, some in the US still use the same old script. They don’t stop though the show has become a complete disaster, and they don’t get off the stage even when booed by the audience.”
The Corridor is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Gwadar Port.
“At least 22 projects had achieved early harvest significantly improving the local transportation infrastructure and the power supply as well as creating 10,000 job opportunities, increasing Pakistan’s annual economic growth by 1 to 2 percentage points contributing to its national and social development as well as improving the people’s well being,” Geng observed.
“I believe facts have given the best answer to whether the CPEC is good or not.”
China while building CPEC always followed the principle of wide consultations, joint contributions and shared benefits putting Pakistani people’s interest first, Geng added.
“The US side, in total disregard of facts, has been talking all about the fabricated ‘debt issue’ with the true aim to disrupt CPEC development and sow discord in China-Pakistan relations with malicious calculations,” Geng regretted. He rejected the claims that China was creating a debt trap for Pakistan, saying that more than 80 percent of the CPEC projects were being funded by direct investment or grants from China.
“According to statistics released by the Pakistani side, debt incurred from the CPEC stands at 4.9 billion US dollars, less than one-tenth of Pakistan’s total debt.
“I’m afraid certain individuals in the US are not bad at math, but rather misguided by evil calculations,” he said.
Over five years, important and positive progress had been made in CPEC, he added.
In its response, the US appeared to take a step back from its criticism following a strong reaction and point-by-point rejection of the “wrong analysis” of Wells.
During a visit to Lahore a day earlier, US Ambassador to Pakistan Paul W Jones said Wells had “intended to generate a debate” on the matter and that it was the “sovereign’s right” to decide about its future.
