China preparing rescue package for Pakistan

[LRE]

China preparing rescue package for Pakistan




Saturday, October 25, 2008

By Hamid Mir

BEIJING: China is quietly working to provide Pakistan a soft loan of $1.5 billion to overcome its financial crisis in addition to more than $3.7 billion to be invested in the telecom and power generation sectors in the next two to three years, Chinese officials told The News here on Friday.

Despite all security issues and financial pressures, China has decided to stand by its two trusted friends — Pakistan and Nigeria — where China will invest more than $4 billion by the end of 2009, they said.

Top Chinese government officials emphasised that both Nigeria and Pakistan were very important countries for China. Many Chinese oil companies are working in the dangerous Niger delta zone of Nigeria, while in Pakistan China is planning to connect its Xingjian province with African countries through the Gwadar Port.

Chinese experts are sure that their workers in both Nigeria and Pakistan are becoming victims of an international conspiracy and say that China will expose the hands behind this conspiracy very soon.

Nigeria was the first country to get a Chinese satellite in orbit and Pakistan will be the second country to use a Chinese telecommunication satellite by 2011. This satellite, named PakSat-IR, will have a lifespan of 15 years and will open new opportunities for foreign investment in Pakistan.

At a briefing in Beijing on Friday, hundreds of European and dozens of Indian journalists tried their best to force Chinese government officials to say that China would not build two more nuclear power plants for Pakistan but foreign office spokesman Qin Gang told a briefing: “We will help Pakistan for the peaceful use of nuclear energy under the IAEA laws.”

China is also aware of those countries that are not happy over its presence in Africa and Gwadar. A Chinese official told this scribe that three Chinese workers were abducted by unidentified kidnappers this year in Calabar, the capital city of Nigeria’s southern cross-river state.

Five Chinese telecom workers were kidnapped early last year in southern oil city Port Harcourt while two workers of a Chinese company were abducted in southern Nigerian state of Anambra by unidentified kidnappers late last year.

These kidnappings began in 2007 when China announced to provide a multi-billion dollar telecommunication satellite to Nigeria. India organised a powerful public relations campaign in the Chinese newspapers on Friday. Many Chinese papers were filled with “Incredible India” advertisements with pictures of Taj Mahal.

Though, the Pakistani government did nothing to use the Asian-European summit to tell the delegates of 43 countries what China was doing in Pakistan, many Chinese journalists and diplomats were fighting for Pakistan by saying that Pakistan did not support enemies of China like India supported Dalai Lama.

It appears that the Indians cannot make any breakthrough in China until they decide to expel Dalai Lama from India. This Tibetan rebel leader is an “honourable guest” of India for the past many decades.

Chinese government officials have tried to make it clear not only to Indians but also to some Europeans that they are not in a position to help them out of the way. The China Daily gave a clear warning on Friday that the financial crisis was also damaging China’s own economic growth.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=17986