ISLAMABAD: The Western world is trying to exert political pressure on China through various strategies in a bid to achieve their foreign policy objectives, speakers at a webinar organised by the Pakistan-China Institute (PCI), said on Thursday.

They were of the opinion that legislation that is being created to counter human rights violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet, should also be extended to the violations occurring in Palestine and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, if they are to be considered credible.

During discussion on ‘New Cold War? Playing the Xinjiang card against China’, panellists also talked about how the alleged maltreatment of Uighur Muslims was used by the Western world to contain China’s influence in the region.

A brief video was shown that highlighted how the US took the politically-motivated decision of removing the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), recognised as a terror outfit by the United Nations, from its list of terror groups. The video also posited that double standards existed on the part of the US to demonise China, despite being at war itself in the Muslim world for a couple of decades.

Where is legislation to protect Kashmiris or Palestinians, Shireen Mazari asks Washington

Taking part in the discussion, Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari said the US was involved in starting a new cold war with China in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a time that called for increased international cooperation.

“Why does the US not take action against the genocide of innocent Kashmiris by Indian forces and fails to speak out against elimination of Palestinians from their homeland by the Israeli regime?” she asked. She also pointed out that efforts to combat China in South Asia include a massive influx of weapons and military cooperation with any countries that are partnering with the US.

China has been striving to share its economic prosperity and open up the world through trade routes and construction of infrastructure in Pakistan and African countries, so that all countries can prosper via international trade. The rational thing to do would be to let the Silk Route be open for the world through international trade, she added.

Professor Li Xinguang from Tsinghua University said that perhaps western countries feared that unity between Confucian and Islamic civilisations would threaten the authority that they had assumed. The west wants to undermine China and create misunderstandings between it and neighbouring Muslim countries, he said, adding: “The west wants to turn Xinjiang into another Afghanistan.”

Allama Tahir Ashrafi, special assistant to the prime minister on religious affairs said the US should avoid interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and focus on human rights violations on its own turf. Interference by the US in internal matters of other countries had led to only disaster in the past, he said, adding the country should rely on facts and engage in dialogue instead of using the narrative of “lack of religious freedom” as a political weapon.

Saba Aslam of the Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution contended that the west used narratives and sanctions to demonise others, adding that the US unilaterally imposed sanctions, which were seen as a more effective tool. She predicted that the China and US would never be embroiled in a military conflict, saying their fight is on an economic level.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed highlighted that political and economic power in the world was shifting from the West to the East.

He agreed with Professor Jeffery Sachs, who believes that the US had not been able to compete with China economically. Citing a study by Professor Graham Allison of Harvard University, he said China had replaced the US as the world’s biggest hi-tech manufacturer. China registered a growth of 8 percent in 2021, despite the Covid-19 pandemic he said, adding despite their opposition to the Belt and Road Initiative, the US launched had its own copycat project called the Built Back Better World. The webinar was attended by over 35 participants online.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2022