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On Thursday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will travel to China to attend the Winter Olympic Games’ opening ceremony and meet with Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
The Winter Olympics are being held in Beijing despite a diplomatic boycott by the United States and its allies over charges of human rights violations against Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang region.
According to the Foreign Office, Khan will be joined by a high-level group that includes Cabinet ministers and top government officials, who have been invited by the Chinese leadership.
Prime Minister Khan will meet with President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang during his visit, which runs from February 3 to 6, and the two sides will discuss the whole range of bilateral relations, including CPEC, according to the FO.
In addition, the two sides will engage in a wide-ranging discussion of significant regional and worldwide issues. “During the visit, a number of memorandums of understanding and agreements will be signed,” it stated.
Prime Minister Khan will meet with important Chinese business leaders, as well as representatives from key Chinese think tanks, academia, and the media, during his visit to Beijing.
The visit will cap off 70 years of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and China, with over 140 events planned to demonstrate the All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’s resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global crisis.
According to FO, the visit will “renew the bilateral commitment to take the iron-clad partnership between Pakistan and China to new heights and lend momentum to cooperation across many fields.”
The Olympic Games, according to the FO, will promote global understanding, inclusivity, and friendship, with Beijing being the first city to host both summer and winter editions.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan praised China for diligent planning in hosting the Winter Olympic Games.
Prior to his travel to China, Prime Minister Khan granted China a clean bill of health on human rights complaints against Uygur Muslims in the volatile Xinjiang province, claiming that his country’s envoy reported that the allegations were false during a visit to the region.
“The treatment of Uygurs by China has sparked widespread outrage in the West. But our ambassador went there and sent information that was not genuine on the ground,” Khan said in an interview with Chinese journalists in Islamabad on Saturday, before of his trip to Beijing.
Khan, a former cricketer turned politician, expressed his excitement to attend the Winter Olympics, saying it would be his first trip and that China’s decision to hold the tournament despite the pandemic’s negative impact on many athletic events across the world was “admirable.”
Khan avoided accusations of Pakistan’s silence on claims of China’s rights abuses against Uygur Muslims during a prior conversation with Chinese journalists in July 2021.
According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Khan added that owing to “our extraordinary proximity and friendship,” Pakistan has accepted Beijing’s interpretation of the Uyghurs’ treatment.
The US, European Union, and several western countries have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, citing human rights violations in Xinjiang, including the detention of over a million Uygur Muslim men and women in camps.
According to China’s roster, 32 foreign leaders will attend the ceremony, including Khan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
