by Shi Yu

 

 

A Chinese father and his daughter, who are famous in China and have contributed to Pak-Chin friendship for 65 years, were respectively awarded the Hilal-I-Pakistan and Sitara-I-Pakistan across 33 years. To mark the 70th anniversary of China-Pakistan diplomatic ties, China Economic Net had an exclusive interview with the daughter, Geng Ying. She recalled how she and her father, Geng Biao, has fought for Pak-Chin friendship.

 

Geng Biao (1909-2000), the former vice-premier of China during 1978-1983, is rarely mentioned as another position -- China's former ambassador to Pakistan. However, during his lifetime, he opened the epoch and extended the roots for the “Iron brotherhood” between Pakistan and China.

 

His eldest daughter, Geng Ying, also follows her father's footsteps and continues to work for their lofty aspiration. She said, "I hope I can step on all the places where my father works and do more for the people of Pakistan in my lifetime."

 

 

Because there was no professional diplomatic team in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Geng Biao was transformed from a general into an ambassador. In 1956, Geng Biao was appointed as the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, and the appointment coincided with the founding ceremony of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

 

He wrote in his memoir: "... Pakistan is a close neighbor of China and has friendly relations in history. The establishment of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a great opportunity to enhance bilateral exchanges and friendship, " Then, Geng Biao began to read the relevant materials carefully, hoping to "advance the appointment" and make a good start for the friendship between the two countries during the founding ceremony and the inauguration of the first president, Iskander Mirza.

 

In March 1956, Geng Biao arrived in Pakistan and went to his appointed post in advance as he wished. A few days after Geng Biao’s arrival in his office, Iskander Mirza made an exception to meet him before the credential presentation. At that time, an official of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry told Geng Biao that this was the first time for the governor to meet a foreign ambassador who had not yet presented his credentials, which showed the importance the governor attached to the Chinese government and the ambassador.

 

On 23 March, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was officially established. Geng Biao accompanied Chinese Vice Premier He Long to attend the founding ceremony. Governor Mirza became the first president of Pakistan. Geng Biao also became the first Chinese ambassador to Pakistan after the official founding of the country.

 

 

When Geng Biao returned to China in September 1956, Mao Zedong instructed him to "constantly strengthen the friendship and cooperation between the Chinese and Pakistani people and between the two governments."

 

From then on, the 17-year-old Geng Ying came to know that there was a mountain called Karakoram and a pass called Khunjerab. Her father was going to build a road there. 

 

"This road is of great significance to both China and Pakistan. At that time, my father often told me that the importance of this road is not only in the strategic sense, but also in the economic, cultural and popular sense. With this road, China and Pakistan will be smooth in all aspects and can build better relations with neighboring countries, "said Geng Ying.

 

In order to build the road, Geng Biao was busy planning and preparing, and even personally went to the perennial ice-bound boundary. Preparations took a long time, and it was not until eight years after Geng Biao's departure that the Karakoram Highway began construction. When he returned, it was the opening ceremony of the road in June 1978. "He was already a vice premier when he went back," Geng Ying recalled, “It was a great consolation to him that Pakistan had invited him to cut the ribbon. His hair was completely white at that time."

 

Geng Biao also wrote in his autobiography: "surrounded by applause and cheers, the cars of China and Pakistan passed through the Khonjrapu, which marked that the towering Karakoram had been conquered by the unity and cooperation of the Chinese and Pakistani people. The friendship between China and Pakistan has reached a new height as the natural barrier between the two countries has been transcended and overcome."

 

 

As Geng Biao’s eldest daughter, Geng Ying said: “Retrospecting my father's efforts always urges me to extend Karakoram Highway as a path of life, friendship, and brotherhood.”

 

In 2007, she established China Huaxia Cultural Heritage Foundation (CCH) to help more Pakistani people. 

 

The China-Pakistan Liver Transplantation Center project, initiated by Geng Ying, is still going on today. Now, a team led by Professor Zhu Zhijun, director of the Liver Transplant Center at Beijing Friendship Hospital, continues to perform liver transplants for Pakistani patients and train local doctors without payment.

 

In addition, Geng Ying and the foundation have also built a school for the children of the Pakistani Embassy, taught Pakistani women how to design clothes, organized Chinese painters and artists to introduce Chinese culture in Pakistan, and prepared to provide free cataract surgery to poor Pakistani children...

 

In 2020, the Pakistani government spoke highly of Geng Ying and the foundation's public welfare activities in Pakistan and decided to award her the Sitara-I-Pakistan.

Geng Ying was consoled and comforted because Geng Biao was also awarded Hilal-I-Pakistan in 1987. "I must show it off to my father when I see him one day," she smiled and said.

 

 

When Geng Biao lived in Pakistan, he still could not forget the bamboo in his hometown, so he bought several bamboo seedlings and cultivated them in the embassy. When Geng Biao left office in 1959, he inscribed on the bamboos that "Long Live China-Pakistan Friendship".

 

"By the time I went there, the bamboo had grown up and so had the words," Geng Ying recalled. “My father told me that cultivating China-Pakistan friendship are the same as raising bamboo. The bamboo grows slowly on the ground for the first few years, but the roots underneath keep extending. When the foundation is firm and the nutrients are restored, the bamboo on the ground will grow quickly."