China's Increased Investment Upsets Some Pakistanis : NPR
China's Increased Investment Upsets Some Pakistanis
by LAUREN FRAYER
But a boost in Chinese investment has sparked resentment in southern Pakistan, where activists accuse China of trying to be a new colonial power. A bomb blast recently hit near the Chinese Consulate in Karachi an ominous sign of the rising tensions.
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The late Qureshi complained that China's big construction projects rely on Chinese workers and Pakistani migrants.
In recent years, China has faced similar criticisms when it has made large investments in other developing nations, including a number of African states.
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In the late 1990s, China built the billion-dollar Gwader port in Baluchistan, a troubled province in southwest Pakistan that borders Iran and Afghanistan. But the port has hardly brought riches to the region. Locals blamed China, for bringing its own workers some of whom were attacked and killed.
China Controversies Grow
In Sindh, the Zulfiqarabad megacity has just broken ground and prompted a local boycott of Chinese goods.
"China project unacceptable," protesters chanted at a recent rally in Karachi. "Let your voices be heard all the way to China," they screamed.
Tanvir Ahmad Khan, a former Pakistani foreign secretary, says activists' demands are unrealistic. For example, the idea that no outsiders foreigners or people from other Pakistani provinces should be able to do business there.
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Outrage over "Made in China" is nothing new in America; take this year's Olympic uniforms, for example. But this may be the first such row perhaps of many to come as China expands its influence in Pakistan.
