China on Friday tacitly endorsed Pakistan's decision to scrap the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority amid reports of growing rift between the all-weather friends over the slow pace of the USD 60 billion project and Islamabad's failure to provide credible security to hundreds of Chinese personnel working on a host of projects.
China has taken a note of the relevant information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here when asked about Pakistan government's decision to scrap the CPEC Authority, an official body constituted by the previous Imran Khan government.
“China understands the efforts of the Pakistani side dedicated to integrating resources, improving efficiency and adjusting institutions," Wang said without directly stating whether Beijing has given consent to Pakistan on the scrapping of the CPEC Authority.
“We believe that future communications will be even closer and smoother and CPEC building
will achieve the greatest results," Wang said.
Before the decision to scrap the CPEC Authority, Pakistan's Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque met China's External Security Commissioner of the Foreign Ministry Cheng Guoping on August 16.
While the details of the meeting were not disclosed, a Chinese Foreign Ministry press release said the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-Pakistan relations, counter-terrorism and security cooperation between the two countries, among other things.
On Wednesday, media reports from Pakistan said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to abolish CPEC Authority but the decision is subjected to getting the consent of China, which reportedly spent so far about USD 28 billion on a host of CPEC projects, whose progress was stalled due reasons of security as well as tardy implementation by the Pakistan government.