The Baloch House

Ccpwatch.org Party Watch Weekly Report 2|16 1.26.2019-2.1.2019
By David Gitter, Julia Bowie, Brock Erdahl, James Gannon, Ann Listerud, and Sandy Lu
HighlightsThe Politburo met to praise the work of the party groups of state bodies in 2018 and set their agenda for 2019 (see Senior Leaders section).Han Zheng hosted a meeting of the Leading Group for Advancing Belt and Road Development (see Senior Leaders section).Both the People’s Daily and PLA Daily elaborated on Xi Jinping’s speech to the Politburo last week on promoting media integration (see Propaganda Work section).
Senior Leaders
Xi Jinping Presides over Meeting of the Politburo
Xinhua

1.25  Xi Jinping presided over a Politburo meeting, which praised the work of the party leadership groups of six state bodies (the NPC’s Standing Committee, State Council, CPPCC National Committee, Supreme People’s Court, and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Central Secretariat) and agreed on the work arrangements for 2019. The Politburo Stan…

Analysis by Jenni Marsh, CNNPosted at 2317 GMT (0717 HKT) February 4, 2019Cameroon President Paul Biya, left, with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in September 2018, in Beijing, China.(CNN) — When top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi met Cameroon President Paul Biya in the capital Yaounde last month and wrote off a chunk of the African country's debt, the deal very nearly went unnoticed.China issued no press release, and the Cameroon government did not mention the debt cancellation in its write-up of Yang's visit.Promoted by Mitsubishi ElectricPrioritizing change in the age of advanced technologiesIt was only when a Chinese news report later alleged that Beijing had written off 3 trillion Central African CFA francs ($5.2 billion) of Cameroon's debt during Yang's trip that the existence of a deal emerged.The figure was incorrect. Five billion dollars is close to the amount Cameroon has borrowed from Beijing since 2000, according to the …

Analysis by Jenni Marsh, CNNPosted at 2317 GMT (0717 HKT) February 4, 2019Cameroon President Paul Biya, left, with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in September 2018, in Beijing, China.(CNN) — When top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi met Cameroon President Paul Biya in the capital Yaounde last month and wrote off a chunk of the African country's debt, the deal very nearly went unnoticed.China issued no press release, and the Cameroon government did not mention the debt cancellation in its write-up of Yang's visit.Promoted by Mitsubishi ElectricPrioritizing change in the age of advanced technologiesIt was only when a Chinese news report later alleged that Beijing had written off 3 trillion Central African CFA francs ($5.2 billion) of Cameroon's debt during Yang's trip that the existence of a deal emerged.The figure was incorrect. Five billion dollars is close to the amount Cameroon has borrowed from Beijing since 2000, according to the …

SELLIN: THE MAIN BENEFICIARY OF TRUMP’S SURRENDER IN AFGHANISTAN? CHINA1:00 PM 02/04/2019 | OPINIONLawrence Sellin | Retired Colonel, U.S. Army ReserveThe vacuum left by the coming de facto humiliating retreat of the U.S. military from Afghanistan at the hands of Pakistan and its Taliban proxy will likely be initially filled by a coalition of ascendant Taliban and a complement of China-Pakistan-compliant Afghan politicians.The $1 trillion U.S. investment in Afghanistan will disappear like sand against the wind or resemble the rusting hulks of Soviet armor in the boneyard outside Kabul.Dead and maimed U.S. troops will be briefly honored in a token-like fashion by promotable senior officers and incompetent politicians who, at every opportunity, squandered any chance of a successful outcome by “muddling along” on automatic pilot in a conflict they never understood or cared enough to try.Afghanistan will be left to the stewardship of China and its ally Pakistan, who undoubtedly will make …

By JUNAID ZAHIDPublished: February 4, 2019Representational image. PHOTO: REUTERSISLAMABAD: In March and April 2016, Pakistan sent two delegations to China for studying best practices in the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs).In November 2016, the two sides established a joint working group on industrial cooperation and held its first meeting, during which they agreed to work out a mechanism, key areas of cooperation and key projects.Later, in the sixth CPEC Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting in the same month, Pakistan submitted a list of nine SEZs. In 2017 and 2018, a Chinese expert panel thrice visited the sites of the nine proposed zones in order to conduct a comprehensive analysis and develop proposals for an industrial development strategy for Pakistan.Through interaction with provincial governments, business associations and enterprises, the expert panel came to know about their demands for local development. The expert group suggested that the development strat…

February 04, 2019
BEIJING - Two separate hydropower stations being completed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework will generate 1,620 MW electricity and are likely to start commercial operation in next three years.READ MORE: Air chief urges int'l players to take positive, real picture of Pakistan abroadThe under-construction Karot Hydropower station with an installed capacity of 760 MW at river Jhelum at a juncture of Azad Kashmir and Punjab province is expected to start commercial operation by December 2021.Suki Kinari Hydropower Station with an installed capacity of 870 MW being constructed at River Kunhar, Naran in Mansehra District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is likely to start commercial operation by December 2022, according to official data available with APP here on Sunday.In total, six energy projects including Suki Kinari HPP, Korot HPP, Engro Thar Block-II coal-fired power plant, TEL Mine Mouth Thar Block-II coal-fired power plant and CPHGC coal-fired pow…

Tooba MasoodUpdated February 04, 2019
KARACHI: Ahmed Rashid speaks at the Adab Festival on Sunday as Zahid Hussain and Fatemah Aman look on. —Tahir Jamal / White StarKARACHI: While sharing his views about the ongoing negotiations between the United States and the Taliban, renowned foreign policy author Ahmed Rashid on Sunday said the Taliban were talking from a position of strength as they controlled more territory than the Afghan government.“What I think is crucial is that the Taliban have now found an America that is willing to talk. Even the initiative taken by Richard Holbrooke and other American diplomats in the past – never had the full backing of the President or the US establishment. Now the Taliban are finding that Trump is determined to pull out and this was his promise to his own voter base in the US,” said Mr Rashid on the concluding day of Adab Festival, which was held at Governor House.At the session titled ‘In conversation with Ahmed Rashid’, being moderated by journalis…

By hook or by crook, it seems that everyone wants a slice of Karachi’s precious real estate.Naziha Syed AliUpdated about an hour agoPolitical bigwigs, establishment ­figures and corrupt builders — facilitated by a rotten provincial bureaucracy — make illegal ­fortunes from the city’s precious real estate.On July 12, 2017, a strongly worded letter landed on the desk of Director General Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Agha Masood Abbas (since retired). It was from the then deputy director general of the Airports Security Force (ASF), Brig Imran-ul-Haq Rao.The brigadier’s ire had been provoked because SBCA had issued a show-cause notice to the ASF a few days earlier, ordering it to stop “all illegal sale, booking and advertisement activities at once” on its Arabian Vista project in Karachi. The notice directed ASF to revert to SBCA within three days to explain why action should not be taken against it because it had undertaken the aforementioned activities without obtaining the …