KARACHI: China is poised to take over operational control of a strategic deep-water Pakistani seaport that could serve as a vital economic hub for Beijing and perhaps a key military outpost, according to officials.
The construction of the port, in the former fishing village of Gwadar in troubled Baluchistan province, was largely funded by China at a cost of around $ 200 million. It has been a commercial failure since it opened in 2007, because Pakistan never completed the road network to link the port to the rest of the country.
Chinese control of the port would give it a foothold in one of the world's most strategic areas and could unsettle officials in Washington, who have been concerned about Beijing's expanding regional influence.
The port on the Arabian Sea occupies a strategic location between South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It lies near the Strait of Hormuz, gateway for about 20 percent of the world's oil.
China's interest is driven by concerns about energy security as it seeks to fuel its booming economy. It wants a place to anchor pipelines to secure oil and gas supplies from the Gulf. Beijing also believes that helping develop Pakistan will boost economic activity in its far western province of Xinjiang and dampen a simmering, low-intensity rebellion there.
Some experts view Gwadar as the westernmost link in the "string of pearls," a line of ports from China to the Gulf that could facilitate expansion of the Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean. That has sparked concern in both the US and India.
Pakistan's Cabinet agreed Wednesday to a proposal for a company owned by the Chinese government, China Overseas Port Holdings Limited, to purchase control of the port from Singapore's PSA International Pte Ltd., which won a bid in 2007 to operate the port for 40 years. The transaction has not yet occurred, a spokesman for Pakistan's Ministry of Ports and Shipping, Mohammed Raza, said yesterday.
Pakistan views China as one of its most important allies and a counterweight to the United States, which has given Islamabad billions of dollars in aid but is often viewed as a fickle taskmaster.
China is expected to pay $ 35 million for control of the port to PSA and two other groups that own an interest, said Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, one of the other shareholders. The third shareholder is the National Logistics Cell, which is controlled by the Pakistani army. The Chinese are waiting for a Pakistani court case challenging PSA's control of the port to be dismissed to complete the transaction, Dedhi said.
A senior Pakistani official said Beijing has agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to finish a 900-km (550-mile) road that would link the port with Pakistan's north-south Indus Highway, facilitating overland transport from Gwadar to China. The Pakistani government was supposed to complete the road in 2012, but it is only 60 percent finished, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
It will still be a tough drive, passing along the Karakorum Highway that winds through the rugged mountains of northern Pakistan and then into Xinjiang province via a border crossing point at an elevation of 4,693 meters (15,397 ft). The path is often blocked by snow in winter.
Even so, the route will cut the overland distance from China's western provinces to the sea in half, from about 4,000 km (2,500 miles) to China's east coast, to just 2,000 (1,250 miles) south to Gwadar.
Longer-term plans also call for road and rail links from Gwadar that would pass through strife-torn Afghanistan to energy-rich Central Asian states.
Asked about the port on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said, "As long as projects are conducive to China-Pakistan relations, the Chinese side will positively support them."
The port is operating at only about 15 percent capacity now, and machinery originally installed by China is rusting for lack of use, said a Pakistani port worker, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On a purely economic basis, the level of trade through the port should be zero because of its drawbacks, but the government is spending millions of dollars in subsidies to ship fertilizer through the facility. It would be cheaper to send the shipments through the coastal city of Karachi, 700 km (430 miles) to the east, the worker said.
Some government officials have claimed that violence in Baluchistan has prevented them from completing the road network. Baluch nationalists have waged a decades-long insurgency against the government, demanding greater autonomy and a larger share of the province's natural resources.
Gunmen shot to death two Pakistani air force personnel and a shopkeeper in a town near Gwadar on Tuesday, said local police official Izat Ali.
Other officials said the ruling Pakistan People's Party simply shifted priorities away from Baluchistan and spent the money building roads in its main areas of support in Sindh province.
"The solution to Gwadar is the Chinese, since they have shown the willingness to work in Pakistan under tough conditions," said shareholder Dhedhi.
FROM: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
China poised to control strategic Gwadar port
China poised to control strategic Gwadar port
Trump says Macrons ‘are fine’ after plane row video
- “I spoke to him. He’s fine. They’re fine. They’re two really good people. I know them very well,” said Trump
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Friday that Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were “fine,” after a viral video appeared to show her shoving the French president’s face on a trip to Vietnam.
“Make sure the door remains closed,” the three-times married Trump quipped to reporters when asked if he had any “world leader to world leader marital advice” for Macron about the video.
“That was not good,” added Trump, who was holding a joint press conference with billionaire Elon Musk in the Oval Office.
The incident was filmed just as the door of the French presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi on Sunday.
It showed Brigitte Macron, 72, sticking out both her hands and giving her husband’s face a shove. Macron, 47, appeared startled but quickly recovered and turns to wave through the open door.
The 78-year-old US president, who has long had a “bromance” with his French counterpart, said he had been in touch with him since.
“I spoke to him. He’s fine. They’re fine. They’re two really good people. I know them very well,” added Trump.
“I don’t know what that was all about.”
Macron himself denied on Monday that the couple had been having a domestic dispute. He blamed disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage.
Musk, who was marking his departure from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, meanwhile took the chance to joke at Macron’s expense.
Asked about a black eye he was sporting, the tycoon replied “I wasn’t anywhere near France” to the apparent puzzlement of a reporter who asked him to explain the comment.
Musk then said it was his son who caused the injury with a punch.
Biden says ‘I’m feeling good’ after cancer diagnosis
- The veteran Democrat told reporters he had decided on a treatment regime
WILMINGTON, United States: Former US President Joe Biden told reporters Friday he was feeling “optimistic” about the future after delivering his first public remarks since revealing he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
“Well, the prognosis is good. You know, we’re working on everything. It’s moving along. So, I feel good,” Biden, 82, said after an event in Delaware belatedly marking Monday’s Memorial Day federal holiday.
Biden’s office announced earlier this month he is battling prostate cancer with a Gleason score of nine, which places him in the most severe category.
The veteran Democrat told reporters he had decided on a treatment regime, adding that “the expectation is, we’re going to be able to beat this.”
“It’s not in any organ, my bones are strong, it hasn’t penetrated. So I’m feeling good,” he said.
The mental and physical health of the former president, the oldest person ever to hold the office, was a dominant issue in the 2024 election.
After a disastrous debate performance against Trump, Biden ended his campaign for a second term.
When Biden’s office announced his diagnosis, they said the cancer had spread to his bones.
But Biden told reporters: “We’re all optimistic about the diagnosis. As a matter of fact, one of the leading surgeons in the world is working with me.”
The political row over Biden’s aborted candidacy has become a major scandal since the release of the book “Original Sin” — which alleges that Biden’s White House covered up his cognitive decline while he was in office.
The ex-president was asked about the controversy and responded with sarcasm, joking that “I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk.”
He said he had no regrets about initially running for a second term, and that his Democratic critics could have challenged him but chose not to “because I’d have beaten them.”
In earlier formal remarks in New Castle, Delaware, Biden spoke of his presidency as his greatest honor, and called for better treatment of veterans.
But he saved his most poignant comments to mark the 10th anniversary on May 30 of his son, National Guard veteran Beau Biden, dying of brain cancer at the age of 46.
“For the Bidens, this day is the 10th anniversary, the loss of my son Beau, who spent a year in Iraq,” said Biden, who had attended a memorial service for his son earlier in the day.
“And, to be honest, it’s a hard day.”
Turkiye’s Erdogan said planned Istanbul talks will pave way for peace in call with Zelensky
- Erdogan also said it is important that both parties join the talks with strong delegations
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan said a planned second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia will pave the way for peace in a phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a readout issued by the Turkish presidency.
Erdogan also said it is important that both parties join the talks with strong delegations, adding that a meeting between leaders of the countries following talks could contribute further to the peace process.
Trump signals fresh trade tensions with China
- The world’s two biggest economies had agreed this month to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs
- Trump wrote that: “China… HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US“
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signaled renewed trade tensions with China on Friday, arguing that Beijing had “violated” a deal to de-escalate tariffs, at a time when both sides appeared deadlocked in negotiations.
Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform came hours after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade talks with China were “a bit stalled,” in an interview with broadcaster Fox News.
The world’s two biggest economies had agreed this month to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs they had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days, after talks between top officials in Geneva.
But on Friday, Trump wrote that: “China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” without providing further details.
Asked about the post on CNBC, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer took aim at Beijing for continuing to “slow down and choke off things like critical minerals.”
He added that the United States’ trade deficit with China “continues to be enormous,” and that Washington was not seeing major shifts in Beijing’s behavior.
On Thursday, Bessent suggested that Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping could get involved in the situation.
Global universities seek to lure US-bound students amid Trump crackdown
- Osaka University is offering tuition fee waivers, research grants and help with travel arrangements for students and researchers at US institutions
- Students from Britain and the European Union are also now more hesitant to apply to US universities
TOKYO/BEIJING/LONDON: Universities around the world are seeking to offer refuge for students impacted by US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on academic institutions, targeting top talent and a slice of the billions of dollars in academic revenue in the United States.
Osaka University, one of the top ranked in Japan, is offering tuition fee waivers, research grants and help with travel arrangements for students and researchers at US institutions who want to transfer.
Japan’s Kyoto University and Tokyo University are also considering similar schemes, while Hong Kong has instructed its universities to attract top talent from the United States. China’s Xi’an Jiaotong University has appealed for students at Harvard, singled out in Trump’s crackdown, promising “streamlined” admissions and “comprehensive” support.
Trump’s administration has enacted massive funding cuts for academic research, curbed visas for foreign students — especially those from China — and plans to hike taxes on elite schools.
Trump alleges top US universities are cradles of anti-American movements. In a dramatic escalation, his administration last week revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol foreign students, a move later blocked by a federal judge.
Masaru Ishii, dean of the graduate school of medicine at Osaka University, described the impact on US universities as “a loss for all of humanity.”
Japan aims to ramp up its number of foreign students to 400,000 over the next decade, from around 337,000 currently.
Jessica Turner, CEO of Quacquarelli Symonds, a London-based analytics firm that ranks universities globally, said other leading universities around the world were trying to attract students unsure of going to the United States.
Germany, France and Ireland are emerging as particularly attractive alternatives in Europe, she said, while in the Asia-Pacific, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and mainland China are rising in profile.
SWITCHING SCHOOLS
Chinese students have been particularly targeted in Trump’s crackdown, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday pledging to “aggressively” crack down on their visas.
More than 275,000 Chinese students are enrolled in hundreds of US colleges, providing a major source of revenue for the schools and a crucial pipeline of talent for US technology companies.
International students — 54 percent of them from India and China — contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023, according to the US Department of Commerce.
Trump’s crackdown comes at a critical period in the international student application process, as many young people prepare to travel to the US in August to find accommodation and settle in before term starts.
Dai, 25, a Chinese student based in Chengdu, had planned to head to the US to complete her master’s but is now seriously considering taking up an offer in Britain instead.
“The various policies (by the US government) were a slap in my face,” she said, requesting to be identified only by her surname for privacy reasons. “I’m thinking about my mental health and it’s possible that I indeed change schools.”
Students from Britain and the European Union are also now more hesitant to apply to US universities, said Tom Moon, deputy head of consultancy at Oxbridge Applications, which helps students in their university applications.
He said many international students currently enrolled at US universities were now contacting the consultancy to discuss transfer options to Canada, the UK and Europe.
According to a survey the consultancy ran earlier this week, 54 percent of its clients said they were now “less likely” to enrol at an American university than they were at the start of the year.
There has been an uptick in applications to British universities from prospective students in the US, said Universities UK, an organization that promotes British institutions. It cautioned, however, that it was too early to say whether that translates into more students enrolling.
REPUTATIONAL EFFECTS
Ella Ricketts, an 18-year-old first year student at Harvard from Canada, said she receives a generous aid package paid for by the school’s donors and is concerned that she won’t be able to afford other options if forced to transfer.
“Around the time I was applying to schools, the only university across the Atlantic I considered was Oxford... However, I realized that I would not be able to afford the international tuition and there was no sufficient scholarship or financial aid available,” she said.
If Harvard’s ability to enrol foreign students is revoked, she would most likely apply to the University of Toronto, she said.
Analytics firm QS said overall visits to its ‘Study in America’ online guide have declined by 17.6 percent in the last year — with interest from India alone down over 50 percent.
“Measurable impacts on enrolment typically emerge within six to 18 months. Reputational effects, however, often linger far longer, particularly where visa uncertainty and shifting work rights play into perceptions of risk versus return,” said QS’ Turner.
That reputational risk, and the ensuing brain drain, could be even more damaging for US institutions than the immediate economic hit from students leaving.
“If America turns these brilliant and talented students away, they will find other places to work and study,” said Caleb Thompson, a 20-year-old US student at Harvard, who lives with eight international scholars.
