Chinese | Pakistan

Five Chinese nationals have been killed and five more injured in Tajikistan in attacks launched from neighbouring Afghanistan over the past week, Tajik authorities and China’s embassy in the Central Asian country said on Monday. China’s embassy in Dushanbe, the capital, advised Chinese companies and personnel to urgently evacuate the border area. It said that Chinese citizens had been targeted in an armed attack close to the Afghan border on Sunday. On Friday, it said that another border attack — which Tajik authorities said had involved drones dropping grenades — had killed three Chinese citizens. Tajikistan, a mountainous former Soviet republic of around 11 million people with a secular government, has tense relations with the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan. It has previously warned of drug smugglers and illicit gold miners working along the remote frontier. China, which also has a remote, mountainous border with Tajikistan, is a major investor in the country. There was no immediate response on Monday f...

The Foreign Office (FO) has condemned the attack which claimed the lives of three Chinese workers in Tajikistan, saying that the use of armed drones in the incident underlined the “gravity of the threat emanating from Afghanistan and the brazenness of those behind it”. Tajik authorities said on Thursday that three Chinese workers in Tajikistan were killed in an attack launched from Afghanistan near the border. The foreign ministry said a drone and firearm attack hit workers of a Chinese company in the country’s south. “The attack, carried out with firearms and a drone loaded with grenades, claimed the lives of three employees of Chinese nationality,” it said in a statement. Dushanbe rarely comments officially on such incidents, and it did not say who it suspects carried out the attack. Subsequently, the FO, in a statement issued early on Friday, expressed Pakistan’s condolences and solidarity with China and Tajikistan over the lives lost in a “heinous terrorist attack in Tajikistan near its border with Afghan...

China is ready to work with Pakistan to organically integrate the country’s development plans and the action plan on building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, Chinese Ambassador in Islamabad Jiang Zaidong said on Wednesday. Pakistan and China share a longstanding strategic partnership with ties that span various sectors, including trade, energy, defence, and infrastructure. Ambassador Jiang was speaking at the Policy Dialogue on “Redefining Regional Connectivity: Pakistan-China Friendship in the New Geo-Economic Paradigm.” “Guided by the important consensus of our leaders, centered on building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, using the advancement of CPEC 2.0 as a platform, and focusing on deepening cooperation in industry, agriculture, and mining, we will continuously consolidate, deepen, and expand our all-round partnership,” the Chinese envoy said while speaking via video link. He said the approach will tangibly serve the modernisa...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif met a prominent delegation of Chinese investors on Thursday and welcomed their keen interest in exploring investment opportunities in the province.

The Pakistan Navy expects its first Chinese-designed submarine to enter active service next year, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf told Chinese state media. A deal under which Islamabad will take delivery of eight Hangor-class submarines by 2028 is “progressing smoothly,” Admiral Ashraf told the Global Times in an interview published on Sunday, adding that the successful launch of the second and third submarines in China earlier this year was a major milestone for naval collaboration between the two countries. Admiral Ashraf further said that the project was not only significant for the advancement of the Pakistan Navy’s submarine force capabilities, but would also contribute toward self-reliance through transfer of technology and skill development at Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works, according to the report. He said that the Type 054A/P frigates marked another major achievement in China-Pakistan naval cooperation. The publication reported that such multirole frigates were already in service w...

ISLAMABAD - Chinese high-tech agricultural machinery is at the heart of Punjab’s bold new Rs30 billion mechanization programme, launched last week to revolutionize farming across Pakistan’s largest food-producing province.

A Chinese research team from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has uncovered a key mechanism explaining why different organisms independently evolve similar functions when adapting to similar environments, using an artificial intelligence (AI) protein language model. Convergent evolution, or convergence, refers to the repeated, independent emergence of the same trait in two or more lineages of species during evolution, often indicating functional adaptation to specific environmental factors. The research team uncovered the critical role of high-order protein features in adaptive convergence. Despite the significant evolutionary distance between bats and toothed whales, both species have independently developed the ability to perceive their environment through echolocation. The research team, led by Zou Zhengting, proposed a computational analysis framework named “ACEP”. The core innovation of this framework lies in its use of a pre-trained protein language model. “A protein language ...

ISLAMABAD - Chinese Embassy in Islamabad here on Tuesday hosted “A Shared Beaming Moon, All United Hearts and Hands” Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, with having a get-to-gather with the children or their parents who went through heart surgery with the support of Chinese doctors.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has said that Chinese weapon systems deployed during Pakistan’s four-day military conflict with India in May performed “exceptionally well”. During the conflict, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar reportedly said the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) used Chinese J-10C jets in its response to India’s May 7 attack. A report by The Guardian had noted that Pakistan deploying J-10Cs would “mark the first time the Chinese planes — and the PL-15 missiles they were carrying — have been used in combat anywhere in the world”. In May, China had expressed ignorance about the use of its jets, saying it was “not familiar with the matter”. In July, however, the Chinese air chief commended the PAF’s “exemplary performance” in the May conflict. In an interview with Bloomberg, which was held last week and published yesterday, Lt Gen Chaudhry said: “Of course lately, recent Chinese platforms, they’ve demonstrated exceptionally well.” “We are open to all s...

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari assured a major Chinese car maker on Tuesday that the governm­ent would provide policy support for new energy vehicles (NEV), electric buses and local production of components. In a meeting with Yin Tongyue, the chairman of Chery Automobile Company Ltd, the president encouraged the firm to explore joint ventures in electric buses, mini trucks, green energy solutions and charging infrastructure. He also highlighted opportunities for collaboration with Pakistani companies in manufacturing, minerals and energy storage solutions. Mr Yin briefed the president and his delegation on Chery Auto’s global operations, its commitment to technological innovation, and its achievements in international markets. Witnesses accords on agriculture, mass transit, environment Meanwhile, Zhu Xiaoping, CEO and Co-founder of SUS Environment Technology, a leading Chinese waste management company, also called on the president. Discussions focused on urban was­­te management, waste-to-energy projec...

ISLAMABAD: Praising the J-10 and JF-17 aircraft for str­engthening Pakistan’s aerial defence capabilities, President Asif Ali Zardari reaffirmed on Sunday that Pakistan and China would continue to expand their collaboration in the field of defence production and aviation. The president expressed this resolve during a visit to top Chinese aerospace and defence conglomerate, the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which manufactures the J-10C aircraft. According to the President’s Secr­etariat, he is the first foreign head of state to visit the facility. He was accompanied by his children, PPP Chairman Bilawal and MNA Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari. During the visit, President Zar­dari met with the company’s engineers and scientists and pra­ised the Chinese-made aircraft’s capabilities, which he said were amply demonstrated during the recent Maarka-i-Haq and Opera­tion Bun­yanum Marsoos against India. Head of state gets a peek at stealth fighter production; praises J-10C, JF-17 for strengthening a...

United States and Chinese officials began talks in Madrid on Sunday on their strained trade ties, a looming divestiture deadline for Chinese short video app TikTok and Washington’s demands that its allies place tariffs on China over its purchases of Russian oil. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer arrived shortly before Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, at the baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz, which houses Spain’s foreign ministry in the Spanish capital. The talks mark the fourth time in four months that the delegations have met in European cities to try to keep a fractured US-China trade relationship from collapsing under US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrives to meet Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, to continue discussions on trade, economic and national security issues, in Madrid, Spain on September 14. — Reuters The delegations last met in Stockholm in July, where the...

GILGIT: Hundreds of Chinese nationals, foreign tourists and students remained stranded on the second day on Tuesday at Sost as protesters blocked Khunjerab Pass Immigration Office’s entry and exit points on the Pakistan-China border. Officials said a large number of Chinese nationals, students, foreign tourists couldn’t travel to China through Khunjerab Pass on the second day as the GB protesters did not allow travel at KKH between the two countries. The stranded Chinese nationals and foreign tourists protested with local police for not arranging their departure to China. Officials said a large number of Chinese nationals protested and exchanged hot words with officials. The GB people and traders have been staging a protest sit-in and blocking the Karakoram Highway for the last 51 days against collection of Sales Tax, Income Tax and Excise Tax by the federal government from the GB people. They say that collection of any tax from the GB people by the federal government is illegal as they have no representation...

PM courts Chinese firms for investment

Of Chinese tiger and French berets

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to strengthening economic ties with China, inviting Chinese companies to invest in diverse sectors of the country’s economy, particularly maritime industries.

Guan Jing GILGIT: The body of Chinese mountaineer Guan Jing, who died on Aug 12 after being hit by falling rocks while descending from the K2 peak, has been recovered and brought to the mortuary in Skardu. The incident occurred on the Abruzzi Spur route between Camp-I and the Advanced Base Camp — a section notorious for frequent rockfalls. Guan had successfully reached the summit on Aug 11 with a group of climbers before beginning her descent. According to Karrar Haidri, senior vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, the Chinese climber died of a head injury caused by falling rocks. The evacuation was carried out by Army Aviation, which transported the body by helicopter from Concordia. Earlier, a team of mountaineers had attempted the recovery on foot after poor weather had grounded helicopter operations. Guan Jing died on Aug 12, a day after summiting K2 with her group in Gilgit-Baltistan. Her body was later found 100-150 metres above the Advanced Base Camp, at an altitude of around 5,400 metres. At ...

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday launched a Special Economic Zone to be set up by a Chinese textile group, with a $100 million investment over five years, projected to yield $400 million in exports.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday inaugurated a special economic zone (SEZ) in Islamabad to be set up by a Chinese textile group — projected to generate exports worth $400 million for the country, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Pakistan has held strong bilateral relations with China, which has supported it through many investments and development projects, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which, currently in its second phase, has been termed a “lifeline” for the country’s economy. The phase II of the program is expected to focus on industrialisation, spe­c­ial economic zones, clean ene­rgy, agriculture and livelihood projects. PM Shehbaz welcomed the establishment of an SEZ, saying that the “initiative would facilitate technology transfer, skill development, and sustainable industrial growth”. The project will be set up by the Chinese textile group Challenge Fashion Private Limited, which is set to invest $100m over five years in the project. PM Shehbaz met with the compa...

A Chinese mountaineer, Guan Jing, died on Tuesday night after being hit by falling rocks while descending from the summit of K2, the world’s second-highest peak (8,611 metres). Karrar Haidri, Vice President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said in a statement that the Chinese mountaineer died on Tuesday night after being hit by falling rocks while climbing down from the peak. “The incident occurred on the Abruzzi Spur route between Camp I and Advanced Base Camp — a section notorious for frequent rockfalls,” the statement read. “Guan had reached the summit on Monday with a group of climbers before beginning her descent.” According to the statement, recovery efforts for her body are ongoing, while other climbers who also summited K2 that day are now returning safely to base camp. In total, 32 climbers summited the peak on Monday. Teams with elite Exped, Imagine Nepal, Seven Summit Treks and Alpinist Climber Expedition successfully summited K2 on Monday morning, according to Haidri. “The strong teams stood on the...