The charming China -- Memorable student life

Being a Diplomat in China I served as a counselor at the Pakistan Embassy in China from 2010 to 2016 in charge of Science, technology, and higher education. During my term, I used all the knowledge and skills that I learned in China and achieved a lot such as having managed several memorandums, agreements, transfer of technology, and a few exchanges of scientists, scholars, and technologists.

During that period, the number of Pakistani students in China grew exponentially each year, and successfully trained the Pakistani workforce in China and dispatched Chinese exports to Pakistan.

I was honored as the Goodwill Ambassador of Pakistan and China for my achievements in public diplomacy. I attended many seminars， delivered speeches, and kept in touch with Chinese officials and public figures so as to promote understanding and harmony between our two brotherly nations.

My understanding of China was quite different between being a student and a diplomat. As a student, I only focused on studying while as a diplomat, I focused on getting across. I did appreciate the help of my teachers. I attribute my success to their patient teaching and hard work.

From 1949 to 1976, China established the basic socialist system and initially established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic systems, laying a solid foundation for reform and opening up. From 1978 to 2013, China successfully created socialism with Chinese characteristics and advanced Chinese characteristics into the 21st century. It was a period of rapid economic development in China which achieved the status of the Second Largest Economy in the world. Since 2013, China has made comprehensive and groundbreaking achievements and played an active role in geopolitics. The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping and its achievements left me with a deep impression. This is a huge initiative for development that has comprised nearly 150 countries and regions. It promotes mutually beneficial cooperation among friendly countries aimed at enhancing interaction, developing infrastructure, enhancing economic activities, and promoting understanding & harmony. For friendly countries, it is an ideal opportunity to boost the economy, public diplomacy, people-to-people exchanges, and overcome poverty. Pakistan is China’s closest friend and one of the beneficiaries of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Pakistanis are profiting from the achievements of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a key project of the BRI. What China did in fighting against The COVID-19 pandemic and assisting other countries to overcome severe challenges posed by COVID-19 are admirable. China has received great achievements in eradicating extreme poverty and building a moderately prosperous society. China was the victim of poverty up to 88% just forty years ago.

Today, China is facing huge challenges from the outside. The US conceives China’s development as a serious threat to its seventy years of global hegemony. The US seeks to contain and fight China and resists the peaceful rise of China. Ether the question of Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Xinjiang, the US seeks to harm China and creat obstacles to its smooth development of China.

After I stepped down from the embassy, I returned back to Pakistan and established the China Study Center of Excellence at the National University of Sciences & Technology(NUST) aiming at training excellent engineers, technologists, economists, scientists, or scholars of any specialization for Pakistan who must be of adequate knowledge of China as well. It took me almost six years to create China awareness in Pakistan by teaching, researching, seminars, workshops, lectures, TV shows, publishing China-related articles, etc., and have achieved good progress. I took my students to China to help them get their own experience. Some of them were so impressed by Chinese developments and decided to stay in China for higher education. Overall, the net impact was very good.

I am the only foreigner with so many publications projecting a Chinese positive image and perspective in the international media in addition to Chinese and Pakistani media. In China, most of my articles were published in China Daily, Global Times, People’s Daily, CGTN, etc.

While my interviews were broadcasted on CCTV, CRI, etc. Besides China and Pakistan, my articles were also published in Europe, America, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. The readership of my articles is quite well and kept on growing. Some of my articles have initiated a debate among readers and further circulated more widely. My articles have been cited often by other researchers and used as references.