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The Pakistani president on Friday assured Beijing’s top diplomat that his country will boost security for all Chinese nationals working on multi-billion dollar projects in cash-strapped Pakistan.
China has been demanding more security from Pakistan for its nationals residing and working in the Islamic country since 2021, when a suicide bomber killed nine Chinese and four Pakistanis in an attack in Pakistan’s volatile northwest.
More recently, a Chinese national working on the Dasu Dam, a Chinese-funded hydropower project and the biggest of its kind in Pakistan, was arrested on blasphemy charges after an angry mob accused him of insulting Islam when he criticized a coworker for taking too much time to pray during working hours.
Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws carry the death penalty, and sometimes even a mere suggestion of blasphemy is enough to entice mobs to violence or lynching. The Chinese man was subsequently released under a court order but it remained unclear if he would face trial or be deported home.
President Arif Alvi pledged more security for Chinese workers during a meeting Friday with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. The two spoke ahead of a mini-summit on Saturday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, during which Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, will host Qin and also Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi.
