The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which has been very well received and appreciated across the world.
"It is built around prosperity, win-win outcome and development for all regional countries. However, if we do not build our own positive narrative on CPEC, it will leave an ample room for the propagation of negative perceptions," said Jiang Han, Political Counsellor at Embassy of the People's Republic of China (PRC). He was speaking at a seminar titled "CPEC: Strategising Pakistan's Narrative" organised by China-Pakistan Study Centre (CPSC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) on Thursday.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, Ambassador Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Director General ISSI, stated that CPEC is very important for Pakistan not only in the context of economic prosperity but also in terms of the strong commitment and historic friendship that Beijing and Islamabad have maintained ever since their diplomatic relations began. Pakistan-China relations are multifaceted and, hence, there is much more to this bilateral equation than the economy only.
Statistics on the development of CPEC projects speak for themselves. Aizaz explained the nuances of negatives narratives and described how some of them have run their course.
He said, "We are holding this seminar to counter negative narratives and deliberate on how we should strategise narratives on CPEC."
In his introductory note, Director CPSC Dr Talat Shabbir contextualised the need for strategising narratives on the CPEC and stated that the project is a mega venture which has been depicted in both positive and negative light. With falsified narratives being churned out in a massive amount, he further said, the need for Pakistan to strategise its narratives on mega project like CPEC has increased even more.
Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, talked about understanding the narrative gap on CPEC. "In a globalised world like ours, new narratives are emerging with every interaction on social media, with every post and opinion article," he said.
He proposed that "synergising of minds and mending of hearts is the creation of new hope for humanity" and should be the new narrative of CPEC under the bigger context of Pakistan-China relations.
Dr Zafar Iqbal, Chairman Department of Media and Communication Studies IIUI, discussed the ever-growing importance of symbolic interactionism that has come to play an instrumental role in building narratives on any topic.
In his concluding remarks, Chairman ISSI Khalid Mahmood stressed the need for counter-narratives to compete against the existing negative narratives on CPEC, particularly in the West. A series of seminars on this subject should be conducted so that ideas may come out and an inter-governmental group can also be set up including all stakeholders like all concerned ministries and civil society. "This is how we can strategise the narratives on CPEC," he suggested.
The seminar was attended by the diplomatic community, academics, media persons, students, and representatives of think tanks.
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