China’s experience of poverty alleviation worth learning for Pakistan, said Masood Khalid, former Pakistani Ambassador to China.
“I personally think if Pakistan has to learn from China, it is the Chinese miracle of elimination of absolute poverty, which is unprecedented in human history, he said in an interview with China Economic Net (CEN).
China has succeeded in addressing the problem of poverty that 800 million people literally have been out of poverty trap,” Masood Khalid appraised China’s extraordinary achievements in anti-poverty. Besides, as he observed, China has been becoming a knowledge economy. “For knowledge economy, China is investing a lot in research and development, education, science, and technology.
They have selected ten key industries, which will be value added to make China formidable in technology. I think Pakistan can learn a lot, and China is willing to help. About Sino-Pak growing relationship, he said, CPEC itself provides that platform or umbrella to further our cooperation.” As Masood Khalid sees it, achievements which China has made under the leadership of Communist Party of China (CPC) are all-round and impressive. “I visited China for the first time in 1981. From then on, whenever I travelled in China, I saw China’s development at full speed and positive changes of people’s lives,” he said.
“It remains a mystery, particularly for western scholars, to understand as to how China has been able to achieve. They forget that China has a very rich history of 5,000 years old, and there has been continuity in terms of Chinese value system and culture and traditions. They don’t fully appreciate how resilient, how hard-working, how diligent, how serious-minded, and how scientifically oriented Chinese people are. There have been ups and downs in China’s last decades, but CPC decided that we have to change course at the critical moment and they have achieved targets at different stages. Chinese people and CPC should be proud of their achievements,” said Masood Khalid. “Pakistan, as a friend of China, we not only admire their achievements, we feel very happy over their achievements.”
In Masood Khalid’s eyes, China-Pakistan relationship is an “anchor for peace and stability in South Asia”. Seeing so many developments taking place in the region, he greeted people of both countries over their achievements. About the secret of unfading China-Pakistan friendship, he said “China was the first country to send Covid-19 vaccines to a foreign country, and that was Pakistan. Back in 2008 when Sichuan was hit by a devastating earthquake, Pakistan sent all its tents to China. These show how we feel for each other, and what kind of sentiment we have for each other,” Masood Khalid spoke of many precious moments in the history of China-Pakistan friendship.
