By Mahnoor
Makhdoom
ISLAMABAD: Despite the international propaganda move, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project is moving forward by shrugging off all odds with lot of successes and new investments.
Although the year 2020 proved to be yet another period of misunderstanding about the CPEC, all such negative campaigns are gradually proving wrong.
The campaigners utilize “debt trap”, “slow pace of CPEC projects” and “withdrawal of Chinese investment” as their main weapons to misguide the people specially those livening in Pakistan.
A US based Magazine “The Itlantic” in its research article has termed the slogan of “debt trap” by China, a myth.
The debt trap slogan is definitely aimed at halting the flow of Chinese investment to Pakistan and it was first used in Sri Lanka.
Although the country is in debt crisis but China has nothing to do with the crisis.
Dushni Weerakoon of Sri Lanka’s Institute of Policy Studies and Sisira Jayasuriya, a professor of economics at Monash University, highlighted that China’s share in the national debt was only 10%.
Furthermore, over 60% of this 10% loan is at the concessionary rate of 2%. It is only a myth that Sri Lanka has to cede Hambantota Port to China.
The same strategy has been adopted to malign CPEC without paying any heed to data or analysis on CPEC investment.
Such disinformation starts with reports of debt crisis in Pakistan and its weak foreign currency reserves. It is used to stir fear among people. The US magazine said “Chinese banks are willing to restructure the terms of existing loans and have never actually seized an asset from any country, much less the port of Hambantota, Sri Lanka”.
It added the Sri Lanka never defaulted and it was only a myth that the Chinese firms had taken over the Sri Lankan port due to non-payment of dues.
Continued on Page 10
