Science is the source of friendship and war both. China is one of the best friends of Pakistan so it is always supporting Pakistan in every field of life.Maintaining close relations with China is an integral part of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Pakistan and China have placed considerable importance on the maintenance of an extremely close and supportive relationship. Chinese cooperation with Pakistan has reached economic high points, with substantial Chinese investment in Pakistani infrastructural expansion including the Pakistani science projects.
China Pakistan’s cooperation is helping Pakistan in not only science but also in technology.It is generally said that friendship between Pakistan and China is higher than the mountains, deeper than the oceans, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey.
The Sino-Pakistan Agreement (also known as the Sino-Pakistan Frontier Agreement and Sino-Pak Boundary Agreement) is a 1963 document between the governments of Pakistan and China establishing the border between those countries.
It resulted in China ceding over 1,942 square kilometers (750 sq mi) to Pakistan and Pakistan recognizing Chinese sovereignty over hundreds of square kilometers of land in Northern Kashmir and Ladakh.
These strong bonds are certainly based on mutual interests. In recent years, China has emerged as a new science and technology (S&T) powerhouse in the whole world. A key indicator of the rise of China in science and technology (S&T) is its spending on research and development (R&D) and China is helping Pakistan as well. Pak-China R&D investment has grown remarkably over the past two decades. China is now the second-largest performer in terms of R&D spending and accounts for approximately 20 percent of total world R&D expenditure.
Pakistan was amongst the first countries in 1950 to renounce its relations with the Republic of China in Taiwan and recognized the People’s Republic of China. The relations between the two countries emerged much stronger during the period of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as a foreign minister of Pakistan. It extended its hand of cooperation and friendship to China.
Successive Chinese leaderships have seen S&T as essential to socioeconomic growth and have accordingly taken steps to develop the country’s S&T-related infrastructure and Chinese governance is helping Pakistan as well. China’s National Medium-and Long-Term Program for Science and Technology Development is a striving plan to transform the Chinese economy into a major center of innovation by the year 2020 and make it the global leader in S&T and innovation by 2050. China Pakistan cooperation will make country strong I technology.
As a matter of fact, scientific knowledge and its use in innovation, technology, and socio-economic development have become increasingly global. Quantum computing and communication, artificial intelligence, robotics, big-data mining, the search for dark matter, genetic and biomedical engineering, brain science, and the list of potentially escalating research goes on. Each has momentous implications for future industries, defense technologies, societal and economic development of any state for the sovereignty, prosperity, and luxurious lifestyle of its citizens.
Accordingly, S&T played a vital role in the rapid socio-economic development of China. This is the reason citizens of China are enjoying prosperity and living a luxurious life. The Chinese development mold has proved successful in the past few years Pakistan should learn from it.
Pakistan is still passing through its worst economic crisis, governance crisis, health crisis, and unemployment, etc., primarily caused by corruption, nepotism, and weak institutions. By keeping an eye on new geopolitical scenarios, Pakistan needs is going devise a new National Action Plan for Science, Technology &Innovation (ST&I). It may be anticipated, Pakistan will take off economically if science and technology (S&T), research, and development (R&D) will be the focal point of the engine of development. Pakistan on the path of productive, sustainable, and socio-economic development. China has proved it through its hard-earned position. The road for Pakistan will be similar. In order to develop a strong economy and socioeconomic development, Pakistan is following China’s example and make ST&I and R&D the focal point for the socio-economic development of citizens.
Slogans like “All-Weather, Time-Tested, All-Dimension, Sweeter Than Honey, and Higher Than The Height Of Himalayas and Deeper Than The Depths Of Arabian Sea” about friendship with China are very popular in Pakistan and Pakistani politics, but politicians, executives, policymakers, economists, educationalists have never made an effort to truthfully learn lessons from the world’s second-largest economy and science, technology and innovation (ST&I) raising power. Thus, knowing the ground realities, as a litmus-test, I appeal not to the Western world but my own people to bring “National University of Science and Technology (NUST)”, the prestigious university located in the heart of the capital city of Pakistan, in the top 100 ranking universities of the world or at-least top 5 Indian universities in QS World University Ranking.
The biggest development off late to open the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has changed the situation completely as China has carved an enormous plan for economic growth and development in Pakistan. The Pak China Study & Research Center (PCSRC) has been envisaged to be the central point for multidisciplinary academic, research, entrepreneurial, business, and collaborative activities in Pakistan with respective Chinese counterparts.
PCSRC at Bahria University (BU) aims to address key challenges in a variety of areas spread over a swath of scientific, technological, business, logistic and cultural domains. To this end, PCSRC will constitute four interconnected nodes – Research & Innovation Center; Collaborative Facilitation Centre; Chinese Language Center; Culture & Cohesion Center. PCSRC is designed to focus on key areas of Pak China collaboration, identify prospective challenges, ideate plans, and execute projects through in-house as well as external resources for knowledge production and providing key solutions.
With a strong portfolio of development projects in the mentioned domain, and strong international and national pool of research experts, BU’s PCSRC is currently working in multiple research endeavors in collaboration with public and private stakeholders from China and Pakistan.
Pakistan and China have placed considerable importance on the maintenance of an extremely close and supportive relationship. This China Pakistan cooperation will make Pakistan strong in the future in the world of science.
CPEC is the need for China and Pakistan. Without analyzing a point of which country needs it more, it would be appropriate to mention that the increasing population of China requires employment opportunities within the country and abroad. Thus, CPEC has provided a substantial opportunity for earning a livelihood to the Chinese. Pakistan, being an energy crisis country, was in need of investment/aid in the energy sector. CPEC has provided such an opportunity to the country.