China’s New Silk Road Comes to Pakistan
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2019
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
China is lending Pakistan billions of dollars as part of an ambitious policy to disrupt global trade. Beijing is six years into a trillion-dollar plan that's been dubbed the new Silk Road. The project – officially known as One Belt One Road – aims to connect Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe, through a network of new trade routes.
Vivienne Nunis visits Lahore in Pakistan, where Chinese-funded infrastructure projects are transforming the face of the city. So how do Pakistanis feel about the increasingly close economic ties with their much larger eastern neighbour? Vivienne hears from Rashed Rahman, the former editor of Pakistan’s English language newspaper, the Daily Times. China expert Joshua Eisenman, from the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, explains the thinking behind Beijing’s big-spending plans.
(Picture: Road at Khunjerab Pass on the China-Pakistan border; Credit: pulpitis/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm going to be able to make money with Chinese or from Chinese. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me, Vivian Nunes. Today we're in Pakistan, |
| 0:14.7 | the country at the center of China's plans to build new trade routes along the old Silk Road. |
| 0:22.3 | China is lending its Western neighbor more than $60 billion to fund infrastructure projects that could make a serious |
| 0:27.8 | difference to Pakistan's economic development. At a time when the world is not that keen on putting |
| 0:34.7 | their money where their mouth as far as Pakistan is concerned. |
| 0:38.1 | Here is China, our friend. |
| 0:40.3 | But why is China so keen to flash its cash |
| 0:42.8 | in a country that's already struggling to service its international debts? |
| 0:47.1 | And why are some foreign commentators worried |
| 0:49.1 | about such heavy Chinese investment? |
| 0:51.6 | Business Daily on the BBC. |
| 1:13.8 | There's a relationship with one who is leading the way. Day or night, we are together. Life will be full of smiles. We are together. No, it's not a corny love song, but a clue to the binding economic ties between China and Pakistan. The |
| 1:19.2 | countries have had a strong relationship for decades, but in the past six years, they've become |
| 1:24.1 | economically entwined like never before. At this performance in 2016, |
| 1:29.6 | two singers are marking the launch of the first trade convoy to travel from Xinjiang in far |
| 1:34.6 | west China to a new Chinese-funded port in Pakistan. |
| 1:43.7 | Officials from the two countries join in the chorus, |
| 1:46.9 | an unlikely combination of Urdu and Mandarin greetings and words about friendship. |
| 2:04.8 | But behind the catchy melody is a serious message. |
| 2:08.1 | China is building new trade routes across Asia and Pakistan is central to its plans. |
| 2:12.1 | You might have heard of the One Belt One Road project, |
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