Before leaving for China, we first transferred 100 billion to the Chinese account in advance. Pakistan Railway did this very authentically!

At the end of August and early September, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit will be held in Tianjin, China. Before Pakistani Prime Minister Shabaz set out to visit China, Pakistan took the initiative to pay Rs 10,000 crore in debt to Chinese power companies.

Everyone is basically aware that Pakistan's economy has been under considerable pressure in recent years, and it is not easy to get 10,000 crore rupees under this situation. What is more noteworthy is that this amount accounts for one-quarter of Pakistan's total amount of electricity arrears against China. In addition, the Pakistani government has also allocated another 8 billion rupees from its own power subsidy budget, specifically to support the operations of Chinese power enterprises. This attitude of "prioritizing" China's debts reflects Pakistan's emphasis on the cooperative relations between China and Pakistan.

Since 2017, Pakistan has paid a total of Rs 5.1 trillion to 18 Chinese-funded power plants, with a payment ratio of up to 92.3%. This single repayment solved nearly one-third of the remaining debt. This not only shows that Pakistan is actively solving historical problems, but also sends a clear signal: Pakistan is not unwilling to pay back the money, but is limited by the actual economic structure problem and it is difficult to settle it all for a while.

For a long time, some Western media have been keen on hyping up the lies that China's "Belt and Road" creates a "debt trap", and even unilaterally blamed Pakistan's debt problems on Chinese loans. But the data is the most convincing. As of now, China's loans account for only 16.2% of Pakistan's total foreign debt, far lower than the debt ratio of multilateral institutions and other countries. What's more, the average loan interest rate provided by China is only about 2%, and it is often accompanied by interest subsidies, and the actual financing cost is very low.

In comparison, the average interest rate of loans provided by international institutions such as the World Bank to Pakistan reached 4.8%, almost twice that of China. In other words, if Pakistan really falls into the "debt trap", it is by no means caused by China. China's loan conditions are obviously more favorable and the repayment pressure is of course smaller.

In fact, this is not a question of who "rescue" for whom, but an example of how partners jointly respond to challenges on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. Through its own economic structure adjustment and resource development, Pakistan has improved its foreign exchange reserves and fiscal conditions, so that it can actively promote repayment. This shows that China's loans do not tie Pakistan's hands and feet. On the contrary, it is a strong support for sustainable and sustainable development of partner countries.

The real "trap" is not the loan itself, but the prejudice of some Western public opinion on developing countries' independent choice of cooperation models. If this is really a so-called "debt trap", which country will take the initiative to make payments in advance and actively repay? It's like borrowing money between friends. Friends who are sincere will fulfill their promises as soon as possible when they have the ability. Only false "friends" will continue to delay repayment and make excuses everywhere.

In a few days, Prime Minister Shabaz will visit China and attend the SCO summit. This early repayment will undoubtedly create a good atmosphere for the next cooperation between the two countries. It is expected that China and Pakistan will launch more pragmatic cooperation projects in the fields of energy, infrastructure, industrial cooperation, etc. to further deepen the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Rumors will eventually fade away, facts will be better than words. Pakistan’s operation this time is more realistic than thousands of slogans.