China has huge following and admiration in Pakistan

Lahore: Former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and renowned columnist Dr Maliha Lodhi has said that China has huge following and admiration in Pakistan.

Speaking at Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) in a debate on the ‘State of Global Power Politics, she maintained China’s rise is continuing.

“China has huge admiration in Pakistan. Largest trading partner (of Pakistan) is China, not US,” she added.

She contended global cooperation and international solidarity were most needed at this time.

She mentioned that there are China-led technological trends and there were US-led technological trends that were structuring the international landscape.

Dr Lodhi said This should be a moment of deep reflection. “We need to focus more on education and reducing the population which has the highest growth rate in South Asia,” she remarked.

To a question that, “we are very much still in the pandemic,” Maliha Lodhi observed: “We have seen vaccine nationalism, vaccine inequity but Pakistan has done particularly well here.”

Professor of International History at the Lahore School of Economics (LSE) Marc David Baer opined the US should see how it can have good relations with China.

“This is time for multilateralism because the world has faced unprecedented floods and fires. If Pakistan doesn’t receive much rain, it should find sustainable solution to the future,” he stated,

The speakers later opened discussion on Afghanistan.

At the event lasting several days, there were nine book launches, there were sessions on ‘Exploring innovations in Urdu poetry’, on ‘Urdu Prose Poem’, on ‘Dastaan Go (story teller)’ and ‘Poetry across borders’. There were also sessions on art and artists and on travel writing and much more.