Xi promises debt help. Concerned about the safety of the Belt and Road

Pakistan owes China $23 billion in loans. Beijing says it wants to continue investing in Pakistani territory, but the flow of money has slowed in recent years. Chinese workers are frequently targeted by Baluch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban.

Beijing () – China will help Pakistan on the debt issue and will continue to invest in the development of its infrastructure, despite the growing security problems of Chinese companies, Xi Jinping said today at the end of his meeting in the capital with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Islamabad is facing a serious debt crisis, aggravated by summer floods that caused more than $30 billion in property damage. According to Reuters, Sharif wants to get a discount from the Chinese: Pakistan’s debt to China stands at $23 billion, out of a total of $27 billion that includes other foreign creditors.

Pakistan is a key node in the Belt and Road Initiative, the mega-infrastructure project launched by Xi in 2013 to bolster trade links between China and the rest of the world. Xi told Sharif that the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) should move forward more efficiently.

With Chinese funds, Islamabad primarily aims to develop the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar and a rail network connected to Karachi, the country’s commercial hub. The disbursement promised by Beijing is 65 billion dollars, but the flow of money has been reduced in recent years. According to the China Global Investment Tracker, if in 2018 Chinese investments in Pakistan reached 4.8 billion dollars, in the first six months of 2022 they fell to 590 million (1.4 billion last year).

The domestic and global economic crisis and security threats to Chinese companies operating in Pakistan are some of the main causes for the reduction in Chinese financial commitment. Chinese personnel and vehicles are often the victims of attacks by separatist and terrorist groups, such as the Balochistan Liberation Army in the Gwadar area and the Pakistani Taliban in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan.

On this point, Xi was clear with Sharif: China is “very concerned about the safety of its citizens in Pakistan, and hopes that [las autoridades paquistaníes] can ensure a reliable and secure environment for Chinese companies and personnel engaged in cooperative work.”