Just after midnight on May 7, the screen in the Pakistan Air Force’s operations room lit up in red with the positions of dozens of active enemy planes across the border in India. Air Chief Mshl. Zaheer Sidhu had been sleeping on a mattress just off that room for days in anticipation of an Indian assault.
EXIM Bank of China has rolled over its loan of $2.4 billion with Pakistan for two years to strengthen Islamabad’s foreign reserves. The announcement was made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on his Twitter handle. According to ARY News, the federal government has revised the terms and conditions for the debt rollover. Pakistan is also exempted from paying additional interest on the loan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has said reports by the United States and western media about the treatment of Muslims in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang presented a “completely different” picture than what had been observed by Islamabad’s envoy in Beijing during a visit. The prime minister was responding to a question during a CNN interview, broadcast on Sunday.
The Pakistan Air Force’s latest jets equipped with near-stealth features, can easily dodge India’s advanced tracking system. The PAF expects to add 50 JF-17 fighter jets built jointly with China to replace old aircraft and upgrade capability against India’s missile defense system. A rollout ceremony was held in December and the new JF-17 jets will fly at the national day military parade on March 23.
The government is considering the possibility of giving two years visa extension to Chinese nationals working on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects. The government may approve a general two-year extension, a senior government official. Another option that is being considered is to link the visa period with the completion date of the multibillion-dollar project, which could end the requirement of seeking an extension.
Nike and Coca-Cola are lobbying Congress to weaken a bill that would ban imported goods made with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. The legislation, called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, has become the target of multinational companies including Apple whose supply chains touch the far western Xinjiang region, as well as of business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a date for war with Pakistan and China, according to a senior official of the Bharatiya Janata Party. BJP’s Uttar Pradesh chief, Swatantra Dev Singh, told a meeting of party functionaries that Mr Modi had decided when the country would be at war with Pakistan and China.
The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would require the Trump administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown on its Muslim minority in Xinjiang. The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act calls on the president, Donald Trump, to ban imports from China’s Xinjiang region as an attempt to stop systemic forced labor from the Uighur community.
Coronavirus vaccines being developed in China may be ready for use by the general public as early as November, an official with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. China has four Covid-19 vaccines in final stage of clinical trials. At least three of those have already been offered to essential workers under an emergency use programme launched in July.
A report published by an Australian think tank in March this year revealed that supply chains in China of almost 83 global brands are using Uyghur Muslims forced labor. The report released by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) titled “Uyghurs for Sale” stated names of big, well-known global companies in the field of clothing, technology and automotive sectors.