Pakistan attack targeting Chinese adds to concern over security threats
- Suicide bombing on Friday was aimed at a convoy of Chinese engineers in the country’s southwest
- Analyst says situation is now ‘clearly worse’ for workers on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects
The Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist militant organisation, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
China’s embassy in Islamabad called for an investigation and warned Chinese nationals to avoid public places, and again urged Pakistan to do more on counterterrorism cooperation and security measures.
“The US withdrawal [of troops] and situation around the withdrawal has long been expected to draw heightened security threats to CPEC,” Small said.
After two decades of costly and bloody efforts to support the Afghan government, US troops began leaving Afghanistan in May, and last week the Taliban swept in to complete its takeover of the country.
Pakistan has had a paradoxical role in Afghanistan – accused of providing covert support to the Taliban while playing a supporting role in the US war on terror.
Small said Pakistan’s efforts to increase security around Chinese projects in the past few years did not appear to be working.
Those efforts include military and police protection as well as from private security firms for the estimated 7,000 Chinese working on projects in the country.
“The problem is that this is not a one-off attack. As we can see from the statement from the Chinese embassy [in Pakistan], they are concerned about the overall security environment in Pakistan, they are concerned about all Chinese nationals working on these projects because it has clearly deteriorated,” he said. “It is clearly a worse situation now for Chinese workers around CPEC in the last few months.”
Du Youkang, director of the Centre for Pakistan Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, agreed that the turmoil in Afghanistan would create more instability in the region in the near term.
“But also the Pakistani government is close to the Taliban in Afghanistan, so if the situation settles and becomes more under control then there could even be an improvement in regional stability,” he said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said earlier this year that 46 of the 70 planned CPEC projects – including roads, railways and ports with a combined investment of US$25.4 billion – had been completed. That falls far short of the US$62 billion the CPEC is often valued at, but both Beijing and Islamabad have touted the success of the project.