Chinese bus explosion in Pakistan: a hitch in the Sino-Pakistani economic Corridor?
On July 14, a bus explosion in northwest Pakistan left at least twelve dead, including nine of its nationals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
AFP - STRINGER
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
China "strongly condemned" on Saturday the explosion of a bus in northwest Pakistan which killed at least twelve people on Wednesday, including nine of its nationals.
The safety of Chinese employees working on the various infrastructure projects in Pakistan has long been a concern for Beijing, which has invested billions of dollars in recent years in the country with which it has a close relationship.
Publicity
Read more
The vehicle was carrying around 40 Chinese engineers, surveyors and mechanical maintenance personnel working on the construction of the Dasu hydroelectric dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Following the
explosion
, the Chinese authorities quickly sent a team of fifteen investigators, which according to Jean-Luc Racine, a specialist in Pakistan, demonstrates Beijing's grip on Islamabad: “
It is certain that they have 'a leeway of which this delegation is an example.
So obviously, when there is an attack that claims a lot of victims, it is not unusual or rare for elements from the country concerned to come and participate in the investigation.
But there, there is already a big battalion.
"
For this expert from Pakistan, this pressure is a reflection of the way in which the Chinese are setting up their major infrastructure projects, all over the world.
"
It is quite significant that the bus in question was not a Pakistani bus transporting Chinese engineers and Pakistani personnel to this large dam, it was a bus from a Chinese company,
" continues Jean-Luc Racine.
Anti-Chinese sentiment in parts of Pakistan
The safety of Chinese employees working on various infrastructure projects in Pakistan has long been a concern for Beijing.
Despite these close ties, anti-Chinese sentiment remains in some parts of the country.
“
There is an official speech that celebrates the Indo-Pakistani friendship, and on a geopolitical level, you have to see how much the Chinese have bet on the Pakistani card, both against India, but also because the Pakistan, which is crossed by this great project called the 'Sino-Pakistani economic corridor'
(CEPC, Editor's note)
, which will link in multiple ways infrastructures, industries, equipment will link more and more, all the west from China to the Arabian Sea, that is to say at the gates of the Gulf,
”explains Jean-Luc Racine.
►
See also
: Pakistan and China inaugurate a new trade corridor
A major axis on a geostrategic and geo-economic plan for China.
But which also arouses resistance according to the specialist in Pakistan: there are also people who deliberately aim at Chinese targets to let it be known that they do not intend that their province or their region is "
exploited by the Chinese
".
►
See also
: Terrorism: trilateral agreement between China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Pakistan
China