China on Monday accused the US of trying to drive a wedge in ties with its all-weather ally Pakistan by repeatedly raising the debt clauses in the construction of the USD 60 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The CPEC is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.

The project was launched in 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Islamabad and it now envisages investment of over USD 60 billion in different infrastructure projects of development in Pakistan.

“The US ignores the facts and continues to use the so-called debt issue to disrupt the CPEC development and drive a wedge between China and Pakistan. This is so malicious and ill-intentioned,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang told a media briefing here while responding to US’s top diplomat for South and Central Asia Alice Wells criticising the CPEC and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Wells last week said the CPEC would take a toll on Pakistan’s economy in future.

“I think what CPEC exemplifies is what happens when you de-link investment and development from established best practices and infrastructure development,” Wells said.

According to Wells, there’s been a tendency to conflate the CPEC with grant assistance rather than understanding it to be the loans, and loans not at concessional rates, that it is.

“We want China to be a responsible supporter and funder of infrastructure. No one country can do that. We all need to help work to ensure that countries have meaningful choices for sustainable and quality infrastructure,” Wells said.