Karachi Editors Club (KEC) in collaboration with the Beach Luxury Hotel welcomed the newly appointed Council General, His Excellency Li Bijian People’s Republic of China on 20th January 2020 at Beach Luxury Hotel. He was received by President KEC, Secretary General Senior members Executive Committee and Azeem Qureshi General Manager Beach Luxury Hotel. The CG was escorted to Princess Meeting Room where he received standing ovation. The meeting started with the recitation of Holy Quran by Ibne Hassan Senior Member of KEC. The Secretary General of KEC Manzar Naqvi gave brief introduction about KEC and introduced its members to the Council General. Prominent personalities included Syed Sarmad Ali Secretary General All Pakistan Newspapers Society & Managing Director Jang, Geo & the News Group, Kazi Asad Abid Member APNS, Habib Ghori of Dawn and representatives of other leading newspapers and TV Channels.
The President Karachi Editors Club at the very outset thanked the Council General People’s Republic of China and his team to have accepted their invitation out of his understandably busy schedule. He gave brief introduction of the activities and achievements of KEC since its formation. He highlighted the close brotherly relations between China and Pakistan goes back to 1951 since the establishment of diplomatic relations. China and Pakistan have developed an all time friendship based on brotherhood and sincerity. In spite of many international changed situations our friendship remained strong and kept moving in the right direction. China has been in the forefront to provide lot of help to neighbouring countries especially to Pakistan be it peace or during war. While concluding he reminded CG to look in to the pending visit of KEC to China for making people to people contact.
Undoubtedly China has made tremendous contribution in strengthening the defence of Pakistan by establishing Machine Tool Factory in Karachi, Heavy Mechanical complex in Taxila. Manufacture of Al-Khalid tanks, JF Thunder 17 state of the art aircrafts, APC’s and other defence equipment. Initially our relations were not that strong when we were allies of west during 1957 to 1969 but since 1970 rapid development in relations between the two countries became prominent. From 1990 we saw drastic developments that further cemented our ever growing relations and saw study growth in mutual investments. Latest is the gigantic CPEC project with $65 billion investment by the Chinese government and construction of Gwadar Port with Kashgar (Xinjiang region) China, including construction of dams and investment in textile, energy, banking commerce and industry sectors.
Syed Sarmad Ali while speaking on the occasion gave an overview of China Pakistan relationship since our establishment of diplomatic relations that somehow or the other not being digested by west and a perception is being built as if new East India Company is being formed under the cover of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).He emphasized that this perception has to be neutralised. BRI basically is a global development strategy adopted by China in 2013 involving infrastructure development and investments in 152 countries and international organisations in Asia, Euorpe, Africa, America and Middle East. It can only be countered by resorting to Media cooperation between the two countries giving our views on BRI to clear doubts of countries that are under the influence of west. When we talk about China we speak from our heart because China and Pakistan beat at the same frequency. Talking about CPEC it will not only benefit China and Pakistan but will have positive impact on Iran, Afghanistan, India, Central Asian republic, and the region. This will improve road, rail, and air transportation system with frequent and free exchanges of growth and people to people contact.CPEC is journey towards economic regionalisation in the globalised world. He further suggested there is need to have proper Media Organisation between China and Pakistan. To foster better understanding the biggest Media Group of Pakistan Jang has given one page in Chinese in the News International once a week that should help both countries to know each other and the activities taking place between the two countries, he further informed that hopefully this one page will be increased to more pages in coming years. While concluding he thanked the CG in gracing the occasion.
Now it was time to listen our guest His Excellency Li Bijian the Council General of the People’s Republic of China in Karachi. At the very outset he thanked KEC and other media personnel present in the meeting and gave brief about his diplomatic career and places he served before landing in Karachi.He served in India for 5 years, Bangladesh 1983 to 1987, Uganda, Singapore for 3 years,Euorpeon Countries. While serving in Bangladesh former East Pakistan he wished to serve in Pakistan. He was very vocal and said that his mission in Pakistan is to further strengthen strong relationships between the two countries. Due to changes in globalization it affords us much more opportunity to further cement our relationships. He further said it will be his effort to make Pakistan stronger and stronger. While talking about BRI he emphasized that it would change the fate of hundreds of countries, negative propaganda against BRI and CPEC must be countered by media. He promised that KEC delegation shall be invited to China for interaction. He said he was happy to be here with the media personnel who can always be very helpful in pointing out difficulties and remove misunderstandings if any and can also counter negative propaganda by writing articles. He further added that he would welcome constructive suggestions for better understanding. He further added that Gawadar port is now fully operational and first shipment of LNG has arrived, side by side Gawadar International Airport is being constructed and 70% work has been completed and it is the largest project of China.Major power plants are being constructed and de salination plant shall be made to solve the water problem in the area. On a question that mostly labour force is from China and locals have been ignored is not correct, he promised to arrange visit for Gawadar to personally see the exact position on the ground. The meeting ended with vote of thanks by Mukhtar Aqil Senior Vice President KEC, in his brief speech he thanked the CG for accepting our invitation and appreciated the cooperation of China in all activities. Pakistan and China enjoy relationships deeper than ocean, higher than Himalayas and sweeter than honey. Pakistan China Friendship Zindabad.