On November 23, Pakistani police said that the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi had been attacked by some militants. Two Pakistani policemen were killed in the attack and one was injured, and three militants were killed according to preliminary information.

In the past few years, Pakistan Army and security forces have carried out a series of powerful counterterrorism operations in Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas and in some big cities such as Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore, hence, the security situation in Pakistan has been improving generally, however, it is still complicated.

In the past, Pakistan was a relatively safe country. Because of Afghan war triggered by the US, many extremist and terrorist organizations emerged in Pakistan, especially in Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas, where the security situation got steadily worse. Therefore, Pakistan is the biggest victim of the US anti-terror military operations in South Asia.

China and Pakistan have cooperation in building the economic corridor, especially in the construction of Gwadar Port. What needs to be paid attention is that some interest groups believe that China is expanding its regional influence in South Asia; they even misunderstand this for China’s pursuing "Westward Strategy". Therefore, they don’t accept the Afghan peace process as well as peaceful and stable development in Pakistan. Instead, they hold the belief that the continuity of unrest in Afghanistan and terrorist threat to Pakistan will be useful to prevent China from carrying out "Westward Strategy". They regard this as an important part of suppressing China's peaceful rise.

Hegemonic states always enforce "double standards" on the issue of counter-terrorism, of which the “agent war” is the reflection. Namely, some interest groups try to use extremist and terrorist elements to undermine the stability and development of a country. If this situation develops, there will be great harm to global peace, and it also does harm to themselves.

Since the Afghan War in 2001, the United States has started to fight against terrorism. However, US doesn’t meet the standards of counter terrorism; Instead, there have been more terrorist threats to more regions, such as West Asia, Central Asia, Southeastern Asia and Africa, even spreading the panic to the globe like Europe and US. The enforcement of double standards on the counter terrorist issue and excessive use of force are the main reasons for the above situation. As a result, there caused damage to people’s physical and mental health, people feeling terrified when talking about terrorism.

The objectives of China's Belt and Road Initiative are to promote the economic development and social stability of the countries concerned and build a community of shared future for mankind. The cooperation between China and Pakistan in building the economic corridor will bring stability and development in Pakistan, thus strengthen the capacity of Pakistan. At that time, powers in South Asia will be more balanced, which will contribute to peace and stability in South Asia.

We would like to express our deep condolences to the Pakistani policemen who have lost their lives in this attack and we would like to give warm regards to the injured.

(Author: Cheng Xizhong, China Economic Net Commentator, Chahar Institute Senior Fellow, former Defense Attache)