Chinese investment in pakistan

However, as postulated by “Senator Mushahid Hussain who is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee of the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament,” Chinese government has been a close ally and has had faith in them and their investments are helping in opening up Pakistan to other potential investors (Sabrina, 2018). Among the notable investment that China has initiated in Pakistan is the “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)” program that is poised to open up very many job opportunities for the citizens of Pakistan. There are also other investments by China in Pakistan that the paper will seek to uncover in order to analyze their economic, political, or social implications. To begin with, China has been on the forefront to invest in Pakistan in various ways.

The first notable investment that China has escalated on the land of Pakistan is the teaching of the Chinese language to the residents of Pakistan in a bid to prepare the population for their future interactions devoid of language barrier. Moreover, people have also not failed to register skepticism regarding the jobs that are created by the CPEC program as some people claim that the jobs are an illusion that are peddled by the Chinese government to get the trust and approval of the citizenry and the government of Pakistan. These doubts that are associated with the Chinese investments and loans have sprung from the fact that the CPEC program do not contain clear terms and conditions and therefore lack transparency (Rahman et al.

Since China is a country that is involved in business with many countries, the continuing trends of many countries pulling out of the deals they strike with them must be the reason why there is a lot of skepticism even with a portion of Pakistani citizens and government officials who claim that the Chinese cannot claim to be creating job opportunities for foreigners in their projects when there are still a large population of Chinese without employment. The economic and social implications of these investments must be looked into keenly so that Pakistan should not face the same plight that befell countries like Sri Lanka when Chinese government resorted to seize the Hambantota Port after their failure to repay Chines loan.

Such actions by investors can have a dangerous social and economic effects on the victim country and thus, the skepticism by the portion of the Pakistanis is justified. Furthermore, under an initiative that is dubbed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is estimated that China has invested a whopping $19 billion in Pakistan to help in the improvement of road infrastructure and electricity power plants to boost the manufacturing and production capacity of the country (Pauley & Shad, 2018). In this way, it is clear to see that the interest that China has in Pakistan has a lot to do with helping the country develop even though they have experienced resistance from other nations that think their much involvement in Pakistan has ill motives.

But even so, it is expected that China as the country putting in efforts to help the country develop both socially, politically, and more so economically expects something in return. The unclear thing about this whole issue of investment is the motive and the specific interest that they have and will therefore seek to uncover. There is a lot of research that has revealed the benefits that Pakistan stands to enjoy from the project; however, there is little facts to reveal the real benefits that will accrue to China being the de facto financier of the project. The language of the Chinese that is taught and widely accepted in Pakistan nowadays is a strategic tool for China to benefit in their future engagements with their allies such as Pakistan.