Chinese state media outlets insisted on Sunday that the ouster of radical Islamist Prime Minister Imran Khan in neighboring Pakistan — a close friend and ally of the Communist Party — would have no effect on bilateral ties.
The Global Times speculated that diplomacy between China and Pakistan may become “even better” under successor Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of the prime minister before Khan, Nawaz Sharif. The Pakistani Parliament formally elected the younger Sharif to be the nation’s head of government on Monday after using a no-confidence vote to remove Imran Khan on Sunday.
Khan used his time in power, which began in 2018, to bring Islamabad deep into China’s orbit, green-lighting heavy Chinese investment in the country through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s program to offer poor countries predatory loans they then use to pay China to build roads, ports, railways, and other infrastructure projects. Despite being an outspoken Islamist who used his platform at the United Nations to call for global laws against blasphemy, Khan also supported China’s genocide of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in occupied East Turkistan, a region that borders Pakistan.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry offered muted comments in response to Khan’s abrupt removal from power during a regular press conference on Monday.
“As a close neighbor and an iron-clad friend of Pakistan, China sincerely hopes that all parties of Pakistan can stay united and jointly defend national stability and development,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters. “I want to stress that no matter how the political situation may change in Pakistan, China will unswervingly follow the Pakistan policy of friendship. We believe the political change in Pakistan will not affect the overall China-Pakistan relations.”
The Global Times newspaper, a state-run propaganda outlet, much more enthusiastically made the case that Pakistan would continue to be a close ally and dependent of China even without Khan, even in light of Shehbaz Sharif recently calling for his country to cease antagonizing America because “beggars can’t be choosers.” The Times noted that the Sharif family, which under Nawaz faced widespread accusations of corruption, expressed as much interest in the BRI as Khan, even without taking on the now-former prime minister’s belligerent attitude towards America.
“The potential successor of Khan is from the Sharif family which has been promoting China-Pakistan ties for a long time, and cooperation between the two countries could be even better than under Khan,” the Times observed on Sunday, before Shehbaz Sharif formally became prime minister.
The Times insisted that any concerns with Khan’s leadership that led to the no-confidence vote were “mainly brought by the [Chinese coronavirus] pandemic” and other domestic issues irrelevant to Khan’s foreign policy. The state outlet did not appear to see any reason for Pakistanis to blame China for the pandemic that its mismanagement caused.
In an apparent opposing take from Sharif’s opinion expressed this month that Pakistan is too economically vulnerable to alienate itself from America, the Global Times, citing Chinese regime-approved “experts,” insisted that the country’s economic turmoil made it impossible to divorce from Beijing.
“This means China is the most reliable, trustworthy, powerful and irreplaceable partner for the country, said analysts,” according to the newspaper.
“Experts from both China and Pakistan are confident in the future of the China-Pakistan ties, as they believe the new government will continue to uphold the country’s long-standing tradition to make sure the friendship with China and all China-Pakistan cooperation projects will be unaffected,” the outlet insisted. “In general, current internal problems in Pakistan have nothing to do with its solid ties with China, so there will not be a significant impact on China-Pakistan cooperation.”
In a separate editorial, the Global Times suggested the United States was to blame for Khan’s removal — an accusation that Khan himself first made. The Times quoted an alleged “research fellow” as saying, “when the US is unsatisfied with a certain government, it will rope in the oppositions offering promises or money – using these coup-like measures to incite the opposition.”
The Times then claimed that America would not benefit from Pakistan naming a new prime minister, “Chinese scholars argue that even if the US was playing tricks from behind the scene, it cannot sow discord between China and Pakistan.”
Yet another “expert” told the newspaper, “no matter which party is in power in Pakistan in the future, it should not be labeled as pro-US. ”
Khan’s road out of the prime minister’s seat follows months of attempted rallies against his rule that faced coronavirus social distancing guidelines and other government challenges. The coalition supporting the Sharif family first attempted to organize a no-confidence vote against Khan in March, but the prime minister used his power to dissolve parliament, stopping the vote and saving his position until the nation’s Supreme Court overturned his move, leading to this weekend.
Prior to the vote of no confidence, Khan claimed that America had set in motion a sinister plot to remove him from power. He cited an alleged letter sent from the U.S. State Department to Islamabad in which Washington “threatened” to force Khan’s ouster as evidence of foreign interference in the country’s government. When Sharif, as the newly elected prime minister, offered to investigate the contents of the letter on Monday, Khan’s PTI political party angrily refused the offer.
Khan’s tenure as prime minister was largely defined by a push for global Islamic law, particularly the implementation of blasphemy laws so that any sentiment that offends Muslims could be prosecuted anywhere in the world.
“Muslims continue to be targeted with impunity in many countries. Our shrines are being destroyed; our Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) insulted; the Holy Quran burnt — and all this in the name of freedom of speech,” Khan said during his 2020 address to the United Nations General Assembly, calling for global punishments. “Incidents in Europe, including republication of blasphemous sketches by Charlie Hebdo, are recent examples [sic].”
The U.N. General Assembly passed an anti-“Islamophobia” resolution shortly thereafter.
A year later, Khan called for every Muslim-majority country to impose trade embargos on Western countries until they adopted Islamic anti-blasphemy laws.
“I want the Muslim countries to devise a joint line of action over the blasphemy issue with a warning of trade boycott of countries where such incidents will happen,” Khan announced. “This will be the most effective way to achieve the goal.”
As prime minister, Khan did not have the same passion for opposing the genocide of Muslim people that he had for opposing verbal remarks against Islam. As recently as this February, Khan endorsed China’s genocide of the Uyghur people happening on the other side of his country’s border during a meeting with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
“Because of our extreme proximity and relationship with China, we actually accept the Chinese version,” Khan said of the Uyghur genocide in July. “There are much worse human rights violations taking place in other parts of the world such as in occupied Kashmir. But Western media hardly comments on this.”
Kashmir, a region disputed by Pakistan, China, and India, is the scene of consistent violence, but is not currently undergoing anything that international scholars would consider genocide.
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