Safe passage for Olympic Torch

PAK-CHINA friendship is time-tested; and it remains unaffected by the winds of change whichever way they blow across the globe. “The force of the wind tests the strength of the grass, and time reveals a person’s heart” - that is how General Chi Haotian, the then defence minister, described the quality of this friendship during a visit here in 1999. The two countries accept each other as they are, never questioning as to what happens on their domestic fronts. Not surprisingly then, after meeting with President Musharraf at Sanya, the venue for the Boao economic forum, on Friday President Hu Jintao said China “respects, understands and supports” all measures taken by the Pakistan government to maintain domestic peace and stability and promote economic development. The Chinese leader described ties with Pakistan as a “high priority relationship” and that China would always support Pakistan in whatever manner necessary in defence or its security to ensure Pakistan’s social progress and economic development. President Musharraf responded by reiterating that developing strategic partnership with China was the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy. However, the highlight of the President’s statement was Pakistan’s unstinted support to China’s territorial integrity as it regards Tibet an inalienable part of China. He firmly opposed any attempt to politicise the Beijing Olympic-2008 Games and any move to disrupt the event. The President also made a point to assure the Chinese leadership that later this month when the Olympic Torch will arrive there Islamabad would do its best to ensure that its relay through Pakistan is a great success.
His assurance is intended to stand in sharp contrast with the disruptions that the Olympic Torch relay faced during its passage through some of the European and American cities. Thanks to an international conspiracy hatched at Dalai Lama’s headquarters to take some shine off the China’s Olympic showpiece, the torch carrying processions were ambushed in London, Paris and Los Angeles. Anti-China Tibetans at home and abroad have been goaded into putting up their faces at these anti-Olympic Games-2000 protest marches. And coincidentally, there have come some anti-China political manoeuvres including a resolution by the US House of Representatives to which Beijing has strongly reacted. Never before such a concerted effort was made to derail the Olympic Games. Pakistan has done well to take a clear stand in support of the event, refreshing the memory of 1990 Asian Games in Beijing where President Ghulam Ishaq was the chief guest. China has emerged as a global power, both politically and economically. Being a friend and its close neighbour, Pakistan draws immense satisfaction from the China’s growing international political clout and its economic stature. More so now, when Pakistan is confronted with serious challenges of political stability, national security and economic wellbeing, particularly in the areas of trade and energy. In the talks between the leaders of the two countries and their officials, they agreed to enhance trade, energy and defence cooperation. The hope was expressed that the bilateral trade would go up to $15 billion in five years time from the present volume at $6.5 billion. The two sides also discussed Chinese assistance for power generation, including nuclear, coal and non-conventional technologies. While the China-supplied 300-MW Chashma-I is in operation the work on the 1000-MW Chashma-II, also supplied by China, is in progress.




Polluter number one

EVEN as the Chinese state’s PR machinery goes into overdrive to limit Tibet-specific fallout in the run-up to the Olympics, recent research has revealed aspects of the country’s furious economic growth that will cause far greater consternation in Beijing. Contrary to previous estimates, China has all but officially become the world’s top carbon polluter. These findings, though still more of an academic interest so far, ought to raise policy concern not just in China, but also in rich countries with higher per capita levels of pollution. It is important to note that China’s is the highest growing but not the only high growing emerging economy at present. However, more than the growth rates, China’s main difference lies in doing a far better job than contemporaries of containing poverty levels. While most economies enjoying upswings, like India’s, have been fine with employing the controversial trickle down theory which concentrates policy on the already vibrant upper class, China has undertaken much more proactive pro-poor policies, and employed different approaches in different ‘poverty zones’, with the more successful initiatives naturally finding wider appreciation and application. No denying its feverish growth in industry has brought along climate concerns and placed China at the top of the list of polluters, but simply advocating cutback in production to have less smoke in the air would amount to hitting the interests of millions of poverty stricken workers in the process of improving their fortunes. China and the UN rightly pressure rich countries to not only take the lead in cutting emissions but also engage with poorer countries to help invest in ‘clean technology’.
Interestingly, the new research also finds it important not to rest the blame with the Chinese. Their economic growth had defied theories and baffled economists for years, more so when they departed from popular economic tradition and actually started making meaningful dents in poverty statistics. Therefore, it is in the wider interest of other rising and well established economies to let China proceed with its ‘miracle’, in the hope of setting important precedents for many more to follow. Meanwhile, the only practical manner in which the pollution problem can be tackled, not only China’s but also other rising economies’, is “massive transfer of technology and wealth from the west”, as rightly noted in the research. Should such advice be heeded where it matters, we might even see the science of economics gaining in the long run, because for all its advances it has so far failed to draw a mechanism for effectively dealing with the massive problem of poverty.

—Khaleej Times