Chinese Study Center launched in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province

KARACHI: The University of Balochistan in collaboration with the Chinese embassy in Pakistan has launched the southwestern province’s first Chinese Study Center, the university said on Tuesday, saying it hoped to convert the facility into a full-fledged Confucius Institute in the near future.
China, Pakistan’s closest ally, is investing over $60 billion in the signature China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which Beijing touts as the flagship infrastructure and energy program in its vast Belt and Road Initiative. Balochistan’s tiny fishing town of Gwadar is seen as the future jewel in the crown of the CPEC splurge. 
The plan is to turn Gwadar into a trans-shipment hub and mega-port to be built alongside special economic zones from which export-focused industries will ship goods worldwide. A web of energy pipelines, roads and rail links will connect Gwadar to China’s western regions.
As large scale investment and Chinese labor and businesses have poured into Pakistan, particularly Balochistan, the need for language and cultural training on both sides has also come into focus.
The new center in Balochistan will start off with a six-week language introductory course and a six-month diploma course in Chinese language learning, which will be followed by a four-year program in China studies.
“The Chinese Study Center will offer Mandarin Chinese to faculty, students and businessmen trading in China and run research programs for scholars from Pakistan and China to study each other’s countries,” Kaleem Ullah Mandokhail, the focal person of the center, told Arab News on Tuesday.
Mandokhail said the decision to establish the center was taken in December 2018 after which the Chinese government had extended financial help of Rs3.4million. He hoped students at the center would use the skills learnt to get jobs in “CPEC-related projects” in the future: “There is a good number of businessmen in Quetta [capital of Balochistan] who visit China on business trips. The center will arm them with language, which will help them better communicate in China.”
Eight PhD scholars of the university, who had obtained their doctorate degrees from China, would be associated with the center, which had attracted a large number of applicants on its very first day. 
“Around 24 MPhil scholars are also associated with the center,” Mandokhail said, adding that the center would prefer to enlist faculty members and students of the Balochistan University but was open for teachers and students from all over the country.
“The center will prepare youth to contribute to Pak-China relations and Pakistan’s national development,” Balochistan University Vice Chancellor Javeid Iqbal said at the inauguration ceremony of the center where the deputy chief of the Chinese mission Zhao Lijian and Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Khan Suri were chief guests. “The center will help the Pakistani people better understand China and will improve people-to-people contacts between the two brotherly countries.”
Lijian said the Chinese embassy had provided support to set up the center on the request of Balochistan University. “We believe that the center would become a beacon for both sides to understand each other,” he said, adding that this was the 17th China Study Center in Pakistan. The country has also four Confucius Institutes.
“It shows that Pakistani people have a keen interest to know about their old friend China and learn the Chinese language,” Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted Zhao as saying. Zhao also announced that China would provide over 20,000 scholarships to Pakistani students in the next three years.