Is Pakistan turning into a Chinese colony?

China has rarely shied away from acknowledging its greed and never ending appetite for new markets. These markets are often used by the Chinese companies to push their products of questionable quality. There seems to be little difference between the policies of the colonists of the yesteryears and that of modern day China. Under the garb of free trade today the Chinese are determined to exploit the last trickle of blood from the countries which decide to accept their ‘help’. A guilt-free attitude and zero concern for the growth of its partners have made China a very risky ‘friend’ to have in International arena. An example of China’s insatiable greed is the state of affairs in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had borrowed more than $8 billion in installments from China for various development projects. It had accepted the offer of monetary help extended by the Dragon towards the end of the three decades long civil war and  Sri Lanka had to pay a heavy price in return of this ‘help’. The strategic port of Hambantota lies just north of the strategic Indian Ocean shipping lane which moves more than 80% of China’s imported oil. No country wants to give away command over its land and resources to another country but Sri Lanka was left with no other option. The $ 1.1 billion deal was necessary to wave off sizable portion of the huge debt given to Sri Lanka by China.

Learning no lessons from the treatment meted out to its South Asian neighbor, Pakistan foolishly followed Sri Lanka’s suit in accepting the ‘help’ of China. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) promised to bring employment and prosperity to Pakistan. The weak economy of Pakistan and the even weaker Pakistani political establishment left no stone unturned in painting a beautiful image of the prosperity that was about to follow. Special Economic Zones (SEZ) were created despite public protests throughout Pakistan. Chinese companies, as well as their security forces, took over the control of these areas in an effort to oversee the smooth running of the projects. With the land under their control, the Chinese started showing their intentions. Arrive, dominate, Rule.

Talks about Mandarin, the predominant language used in China, to be made compulsory in schools around Sindh, and Punjab did the rounds in the government circles all through 2011-15. This was, however, repealed following widespread public protests. But this was just one of the smaller attempts by the Chinese in their grand strategy for economic, political and cultural domination of Pakistan. The proposal to switch to Chinese Yuan as the new currency for bilateral trade between the two countries was another move part of this grand strategy. This move would increase the demand of Yuan around the globe while China can then push for similar moves to its other trading partners citing the example of Pakistan. The third and the most recent incident showing how the Chinese dominate and humiliate Pakistani people and law enforcement officers has come out.

This video shared by Omar R Quraishi, ex-editor of SAMAATV who has previously worked for leading Pakistani dailies such as Dawn, shows a handful of Chinese nationals attacking a police van. They can also be seen making lewd gestures towards the Pakistani locals gathered at the scene. A Chinese person stands up on the hood of the policeman’s car while another tries to manhandle the bystanders who are recording the incident.  It is demonstrative of the unacceptable yet common behavior for the minority Chinese population in Pakistan that has come to symbolize the unequal standings of the ‘all weather allies’.

This outrageous behaviour carried out on foreign soil by the citizens of China demonstrates how they continue to rule and dominate the Pakistani public today. This might be a single recorded event but there must have been countless others which never made it to the public domain.

Pakistan has, it seems, outsourced its sovereignty, dignity and autonomy by bowing to the outwardly Communist China. What Pakistan doesn’t realize is that China is the biggest example of expansionist power today and much like a kid with chocolates lying around him, China doesn’t know when to stop.