Pakistan and China have launched the China-Pakistan Information Corridor (CPIC), with Information Minister Ataullah Tarar saying that the initiative will focus on countering misleading narratives, cultural exchanges and cooperation between think tanks.

The corridor was launched at a ceremony in Islamabad, which was televised on Tuesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning and Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong attended the launch.

In his televised remarks, Tarar expressed his “long-standing“ desire to collaborate with China in the fields of media, information sharing and digital platforms.

Hailing Pakistan and China’s bilateral relations, Tarar recalled the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), noting that it had “turned decades of goodwill into steel, concrete and current”.

“It lit homes, laid motorways across our provinces and gave Pakistan at Gwadar a gateway to the world.”

Tarar said that while the first phase of CPEC connected lands, the next phase will “connect our minds and this information corridor will act as a bridge for connecting the minds of the people of the two countries”.

The information minister said the collaboration under the newly launched corridor will stand on four pillars — media, business and enterprises, think tanks, and culture/tourism.

“First, media. A news exchange working group of 18 Pakistani and Chinese media organisations. From our state broadcasters and private channels to Xinhua, CMG, and People’s Daily now share verified news on our cooperation.”

He added that it will also include a dedicated fact-check mechanism to track misleading narratives and counter them with “concrete facts”.

The second pillar, which includes businesses and enterprise, Tarar said, will draw on leading Pakistani and Chinese commercial groups.

“This pillar has opened its first regional office in Karachi,” Tarar said, adding that under the initiative, a trade portal to track trade, investment, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was being built, along with a podcast series about the stories of Chinese entrepreneurs in Pakistan and vice versa.

He said the third pillar will involve collaboration between think tanks from the two countries.

“Led by the Pakistan-China Institute and joined by our foremost research institutions, this pillar will bring evidence and depth to the bilateral conversation through joint dialogue, research, and publications with Chinese counterparts,” Tarar said.

The fourth pillar, which Tarar described as the “heart of the corridor”, will focus on tourism, with work already underway on the Xinjiang-Gilgit-Baltistan tourism corridor, “extending the journeys of Chinese travellers into the valleys of our north”.

Tarar also shared that the first cohort of CPEC Youth Ambassadors had been nominated from 13 universities across Pakistan.

“Before a community of shared future can be built in steel and stone, it must find its place in the minds of the people,” Tarar said, stressing that the principle was at the core of CPIC.

“If CPEC is its body and the shared future, CPIC will be its voice. If CPEC connects our economies, CPIC will connect our understanding. Through it, a student in Lahore will know the China of today, and not the caricatures of yesterday. A family in Chengdu will see Pakistan as it truly is: warm, resilient, and full of potential.”

He added that the corridor will counter “falsehoods with fact, isolation with exchange, and suspicion with trust,” lauding Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision.

“President Xi gave us the vision of a shared future, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has given Pakistan the means to reach it,” Tarar said.

For PM Shehbaz, Tarar said the digital revolution was about people and “above all Pakistan’s young people”.

“More than 68 per cent of our nation is under 30 in their hands. A laptop is a passport and a smartphone is a marketplace. Through their talent, Pakistan is taking its place in the global digital economy.”

Tarar further stated that CPIC was at its core a “digital corridor”.

“Its news exchanges, fact-check mechanisms, trade portals, podcasts, social media channels, and youth ambassadors are tools of a digital age put to work for an old and trusted friendship. And here too, Pakistan walks with China,” Tarar said.

The information minister, in his address, also invited Chinese media houses, think tanks, universities, enterprises, and youth ambassadors to join each pillar of CPIC.

Concluding his address, Tarar said that while the Karakoram Highway was carved through the mountains, today Pakistan and China were building a “different highway [..] it is not made of rocks, but it is made of truth, and it will be carried not on trucks, but on voices.

Meanwhile, China’s Ning also addressed the ceremony, noting that China and Pakistan continue to face misinformation and fake news, according to state broadcaster Pakistan TV.

Ning stressed the need for the CPIC, saying that its four pillars can play a key role in highlighting bilateral cooperation.

Pakistan and China share a longstanding strategic partnership rooted in mutual trust, economic cooperation and regional connectivity. Over the decades, ties have expanded across different sectors — including trade, energy, defence and infrastructure — with the CPEC symbolising a shared vision for development.

A day earlier, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Ambassador Zaidong to review progress on CPEC.

During the meeting in Islamabad, Dar praised the ongoing expansion of the “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership” between the two nations. Discussions focused on advancing trade, investment, regional connectivity, agricultural modernisation and people-to-people exchanges.