Asia Weekly: Building personal and political bridges between Pakistan and China

Date : September 02, 2013

When Mushahid Hussain was 13, his father Amjad Hussain, a colonel in the Pakistani military, was posted to Dhaka city, the current capital of Bangladesh which was at that time still a part of Pakistan. Accompanying his father from Lahore, the teen found himself lonely in the new city at first.

This was in the 1960s and the means of entertainment were few. Television broadcasts had just started in Pakistan and were not accessible everywhere. So his father gave him a radio on his birthday to keep loneliness at bay.

The shiny new Philips shortwave radio led to a passionate love affair — with China.

“The radio became a close companion,” says Hussain. “I started listening to Radio Peking daily and followed the intense political debates during the ‘cultural revolution’ (1966-1976).

“I began subscribing to Chinese periodicals like Peking Review, China Pictorial and China Reconstructs.”

Today, the teen has become a stately senator and the radio has been long since replaced by the iPad. But Hussain’s passion for China remains as strong.

It led him to establish the Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) in Islamabad in 2009, a private, non-governmental platform for promoting people-to-people cooperation between the two countries, as “a labor of love”.

“I have always felt an affinity towards China, almost a romance, as our best friend, close ally and strategic partner, whose role is crucial for our prosperity, security, and stability,” Hussain says.

To cultivate greater people-to-people links, PCI publishes a cultural magazine, Youlin, meaning good neighbors, in collaboration with the Xinjiang Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.

“Since the website is both in Chinese and English, it (can be a) powerful form of communication between the two peoples,” says Dushka H Saiyid, editor of the monthly publication.

“Given the long history of cooperation between (Pakistan and China), we have sought to highlight and inform the reader about such mega projects as Gwadar and the Karakoram Highway, and the contribution they have made to Pakistan’s economy.”

The Karakoram Highway, also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was a major two-decade-long bilateral project connecting both countries which was completed in 1979. Built across the Himalayan ranges at a height of over 4,600 meters, the highest paved international road in the world witnessed the deaths of over 2,000 construction workers in landslides and falls during its construction. They included around 200 Chinese workers.

The port of Gwadar in Balochistan, a key energy trade corridor, was built largely with Chinese assistance. Early this year, the contract to run Gwadar was handed over to the China Overseas Ports Holding Company from the previous manager, the Port of Singapore Authority.

Cultural awareness

Saiyid says Pakistan’s vibrant art, music and culture are mostly ignored by the international media. Youlin, she adds, is trying to rectify that.

The publication also boasts an unusual series of interviews with Chinese expats in Pakistan, offering “a glimpse into their lives and their contribution to Pakistani society and the economy”.

The Youlin portal covers bilateral economic and business activities as well. There are articles on Chinese companies, like Zong, China Mobile’s subsidiary in Pakistan.

PCI also runs an e-magazine, Nihao-Salam, to provide information on commerce, science and technology, education and youth activities.

 “We thought it would be a good idea to bring the two countries together through dissemination of news and bridging the gap on access to information,” Hussain says.

Started in 2009, the portal is edited by Muhammad Arif, a 32-year-old now doing a PhD in journalism from Hebei University in the city of Baoding, close to Beijing.

The contents come from an army of freelancers and volunteers in China, Pakistan and other countries.

“We have 40,000 to 50,000 subscribers,” says Arif. “They are from 59 countries. In a week, we have nearly 800 surfers visiting our site.”

The publications are followed up by different cultural activities.

This year, PCI sent two Pakistani scholars to Shanghai University for “bilateral brainstorming” with Chinese peers on culture and other areas.

It also facilitated a visit by Mustansar Hussain Tarar, the 74-year-old celebrated Pakistani author, actor and mountaineer, to Xinjiang in Northwest China to write the first travelogue from the region in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.

Then there have been events like the Pakistan-China Media Forum, and a cultural show hosted with the Chinese embassy in Islamabad. There have also been launches of books on China and even a documentary, Rising China.

Besides cultural and political initiatives, PCI encourages Chinese investment in Pakistan for greater economic cooperation. It works as a consultancy for Chinese companies that are setting up business in Pakistan, helping them cope with the different regulations, culture and other aspects.

“The basic issues pertain to security, law and order, bureaucratic red tape which needs to be slashed in order to get things done, promises not kept in time, and, occasionally, allegations of graft,” Hussain explains.

About 15,000 Chinese technicians, engineers and experts live in Pakistan, working in over 120 projects. These include the Gomal Zam Dam built in Waziristan — a rugged mountainous region in the northwest of Pakistan — by the Chinese State-owned company Sinohydro Corporation; and gold and copper mining in Saindak in Balochistan.

Hussain met his first Chinese official in 1966 when the then Chinese president Liu Xiaoqi visited East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Hussain had been one of the rows of students from the Adamjee Public School who had waited with bouquets to greet Liu on arrival.

This May, as PCI chairman, he met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang twice when Li visited Pakistan. The first time, it was with a group of parliamentary leaders at the Senate of Pakistan, and later, with a think-tank delegation.

The media reported Li as lauding the PCI’s role as icebreaker, saying such initiatives promoted people-to-people contact. He also recalled “very fond memories” of his own first visit to Pakistan 27 years ago as part of a youth delegation.

Now PCI is gearing up for another book launch, this one by Hussain himself.

“My first exclusive book on China, basically a history of our bilateral bond, will be published this year concurrently in Islamabad and Beijing,” he says.

Source: http://www.chinadailyasia.com/focus/2013-08/30/content_15085755.html