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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently visited China for the first time since beginning his second term in March. His visit aimed to attract foreign investment and boost exports to mitigate Pakistan’s economic crisis amid security concerns.
Government officials in Pakistan are celebrating the five-day visit as a success, though observers note that, despite the warm relations displayed, significant hurdles remain in strengthening the economic partnership between Beijing and Islamabad. These challenges are largely attributed to Pakistan’s inadequate policies.
A report in The Diplomat suggests that China has downgraded its relationship with Pakistan from “highest priority” to “priority.” The report cites Pakistan’s instability, economic troubles, and deteriorating security situation, with Chinese citizens increasingly targeted, as factors diminishing the appeal of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Pakistan and straining bilateral relations.
Pakistan owes more than $7.5 billion in project debt to power plants established under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and nearly $2 billion in unpaid bills to Chinese power producers. Chinese officials state that around 13 percent of Pakistan’s external debt is owed to China, whereas the International Monetary Fund estimated it to be almost 30 percent in a 2022 report.
Although China and Pakistan describe their relationship as an “All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership,” recent joint statements from 2023 and 2024 indicate a shift. In contrast to the 2018 and 2022 statements, which labeled the relationship as China’s “highest priority,” the more recent statements refer to it as merely “a priority.”
The paper argues that this consistent change in wording across successive statements suggests a deliberate decision by China to downgrade its relationship with Pakistan. Despite Beijing’s tough stance on the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, The Diplomat may be overstating the decline of Sino-Pak relations.
