Credit to mevotex@miricommunity.net

Pakistani economy increasingly falling to China, students rush to learn Mandarin

When Misbah Rashid taught Chinese 30 years ago, few signed up her class. Today she has more than 200 Pakistani students, who are attracted by the prospect of an affordable education and job in the world's second largest economy. To a poor country like Pakistan, where 60 percent live under $2 a day, foreign education was for decades a privilege reserved only for the wealthiest elites, those could afford the stratospheric expense of sending their progeny to the West.


Middle class Pakistani students rushing to learn Mandarin

But Rashid’s pupils are mostly middle class. They are ambitious, and they are the shining light of Pakistan, a nation torn by religious violence. Despite that, they still lack the means to afford an American or British education. That is the reason they sign up for Mandarin Chinese at the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad. Many of them hope to get a job with a Chinese company in Pakistan. Others will go on to further studies in China, which offers around 500 scholarships a year and cheaper university fees.

For many Pakistanis, China is “the new West”. Its economy, scheduled to overtake the U.S. before 2035, is prospering and surging ahead. The 1.31 billion ethnic Chinese around the world have built up a sophisticated and highly interconnected business network that create endless opportunities inside and outside the Chinese world. Global Finance for instance, projected that by 2015 the Chinese would control 30 percent of all wealth in the world at the expenses of the declining West.

A course in China costs a few thousand dollars a year, compared with the tens of thousands of dollars U.S. and British universities charge. What is more, some Pakistanis say their great northeastern neighbour makes them feel more welcome. “Nowadays as Pakistanis, you may not be as welcome in all other countries as we were a few years ago,” says 18-year-old Ali Rafi, who applied to study economics at Shangdon University after visiting last summer.


Chinese influence has deeply penetrated into Pakistan

“But when we went to China, there was one major difference in that we felt at home, the people relations were really, really good. We were always welcomed, honoured and everyone was really pleased when they learnt we were Pakistani.” Rafi studies at City School, one of the private schools in Islamabad that has started to offer Chinese lessons to children as young as 12, who sing in Mandarin under the watchful eye of their teacher, Zhang Hai Wei.

If everything goes well, the school will roll out Chinese classes across its 200 branches in Pakistan, with other private schools following suit. According to Pakistan’s embassy in Beijing, around 8,000 Pakistani students are already studying in China and thousands more are preparing to join them.

The booming Chinese-language demand in Pakistan create an environment where teachers are in severe shortage. Pakistan now have 60,000 students learning Mandarin, but only 50 teachers teaching them, something that resulted in a depressing 1200:1 student/teacher ratio. Many foreign teachers found Pakistan dangerous and refuse to work in the country.


Chinese leader speaking at Pakistani parliament

Pakistanis complain about the difficulty of getting visas and of the suspicion their nationality can arouse among those who associate Pakistan with Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban, particularly in Britain and the United States. The British government says that overall, 20 percent fewer Pakistani student visas were issued in 2012, compared to the previous year. The independent Institute of International Education says 5,045 students from Pakistan studied in the United States in 2010-11, but that the number has declined steadily since 2001-02, the academic year of the 9/11 attacks.

Not only that, Pakistanis also suffer poor perception among their own Muslim peers in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon, who likewise associate them with terrorism and hence bringing a bad name to the religion as a whole. A survey of 21 countries released on 2012 by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center suggests that Pakistan is a universally disliked country.

Among Muslim countries, Jordan (57 percent), Lebanon (56 percent), Tunisia (54 percent) and Egypt (53 percent) had an unfavorable opinion of Pakistan. In East Asia, 52 percent of Chinese see Pakistan unfavorably, and that is actually better than Muslim Egypt, as do 59 percent in Japan and 59 percent in India. Japan, for instance, decided not to take chances and had deported more than 15,000 Pakistanis since 9/11.


The 'string of pearls' - China's trading outposts in South Asia

But the China is reluctant to admonish Pakistan in public because it is gaining clout over the country's economy. Two months ago, Pakistan transferred its strategically located deep-sea Gwadar port to China. To please China, Pakistani President Zardari aligned his country's financial regulations to match those of China, and a free trade agreement was signed in 2006. He has also given Chinese investors privileges on investments in Pakistan, and special economic zones are created specifically for the Chinese.

China has recently pledged to greatly increase its investment in Pakistan, from $7 billion to $30 billion a year. The Chinese are investing in everything in Pakistan from energy, infrastructure, agriculture to the technology sectors. They have helped Pakistan build the port of Gwadar in Balochistan, and the Karakoram Highway bridging northern Pakistan to western China. This connect China to the Arabian Sea and Strait of Hormuz, a gateway for a third of the world's traded oil.

State-owned China Mobile now have 15 percent market share in Pakistani telecom market, up from 9 percent in 2011. The Chinese are currently handling 35 mega projects in Pakistan, investing $36 billion, over the course of five years from 2011 to 15. It includes 13 projects by the public sector, and 22 by the private sector.


China invests into everything in Pakistan, including taking control of its strategic port

The projects include: energy, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure development, power - including projects based on coal, hydel electricity - and gas, information technology, electronics, telecommunications, chemicals fertilizers, value-added textile manufactures, automobile assembly, automotives, agricultural implements, agriculture and agro-based industry, pesticides, cool chains, food and fruit processing, and packaging, livestock and dairy farming.

Chinese companies have also expressed interest to control Pakistan's Thar coalfield - the 6th largest coal reserves in the world, after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani invited them to tap into the country's massive energy resources.

Investments from China however, did not go without controversies. Some politicians and activists feared a Chinese economic domination of Pakistan, accusing China of trying to be a new colonial power. Bashir Qureshi, a politician in his late 40s and an outspoken critic of Chinese economic activities in Pakistan, died unexpectedly last year. His last speech was directed against China: "The enemy won't break us. Long live Sindh." There is no evidence linking China to Qureshi's death.


From 2013 onwards, Chinese studies is to made compulsory in the Sindh province of Pakistan

Qureshi was opposing the Chinese mega construction project in Zulfiqarabad, a 1 million-acre industrial megacity that is designed to be some sort of quasi Chinese special economic zone in Pakistan. The government of the Pakistani province of Sindh decreed that learning Chinese would be compulsory in schools from 2013 onwards.

Others believe China is good for Pakistan. Maleeha Lodhi, former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. and Britain, says that the money couldn't come at a better time. "Let's face it: Foreign direct investment into Pakistan has plunged to a historic low," she says. "In this environment, when you have China - the second-largest economy in the world - stepping up to the plate and saying, 'We're prepared to help you,' at a time when others are shy of coming into Pakistan, I think that more than offsets the fears that some may have."

That is exactly the thoughts of those middle class students rushing to learn Mandarin. Mushtak Ahmed, 19, said he has enrolled under Rashid, the teacher who taught Chinese for 30 years, because of the Chinese economic influx into Pakistan's northern province of Gilgit-Baltistan, where China is widening the highway to its border. "Lots of Chinese people are coming to our area and they just speak Chinese and we cannot understand it... so there is a need for translators," he said.


Religious violence wrecked Pakistan and turned it into one of the poorest in Asia

Pakistan is the second most populous Muslim country after Indonesia, who is fighting to reduce the economic power of its ethnic Chinese. The Chinese is estimated to control 70 percent of the Indonesian economy and make up 20 of the 25 wealthiest Indonesian billionaires listed in Forbes 2013.

Regarded as the mightiest Muslim state - the only one equipped with nuclear weapons, Pakistan is now a mere shadow of its past. In the 1960s, Pakistan's average economic growth rate outperformed the rest of the world. Average annual real GDP growth rates was 6.8 percent and the country was seen as a model of economic development across the globe. There was much praise for its economic progression, and the talks about a potential Muslim industrial power like that of Japan.

Karachi was seen as an economic role model around the world at that time, and many countries sought to emulate Pakistan's economic planning strategy. One of them is South Korea, whose living standard was no better than African state of Ghana in the 1960s, copied the city's second "Five-Year Plan" and modeled the World Financial Center in Seoul after Karachi.


The entire Pakistani economy isn't worth more than a Hong Kong

But the so-called "Pakistani golden age 1960s" faltered as fast as it ascended. After decades of economic mismanagement and religious violence, various East Asian countries that were behind Pakistan in the 1960s have surged far ahead in most economic and social indicators today. South Korea for instance, now has a per capita income 12 times higher than Pakistan and an economy 5 times bigger despite having a population of only 50 million compared to Pakistan's 180 million. Even the poorest of East Asia, North Korea, has a better per capita GDP than Pakistan.

By 1969, Pakistan’s manufactured exports were higher than the exports of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia combined. International observers speculated the possibilities that over the next two decades, Pakistan would emerged as another Asian miracle economy. In 2012 however, any one of the three mentioned countries (Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) could easily beat Pakistan. All of them individually export at least $200 billion worth of goods while Pakistan $31 billion.

Even though Pakistan is the sixth most populous in the world with 180 million people, its economy, measured in nominal GDP, is smaller than Singapore and Hong Kong. Extremist militancy and terrorism have effectively derailed the economy and brought the country to its knees. 50 years ago, per capita income in Pakistan was 3 times that of India. Today, India is 25 percent richer than Pakistan.


Pakistani middle class, fed up with religious extremism, see China as an economic model

The country who was once touted as potentially the first modern Muslim industrial powerhouse is now wrecked by tribal strife and terrorism, with a mere literacy rate of 55 percent - the third lowest in Asia after Afghanistan and Bhutan. Human Development Index (HDI) is worse than neighboring India, and 60 percent of Pakistanis under absolute poverty. It is of no wonder the country's middle class is seeking for guidance from China.



Source:

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/pakistan-middle-c...-062731054.html

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/in-pakis...-chinese-339842

http://tribune.com.pk/story/517662/pakista...comment-1385995

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/03/09/pakistan-chinese.php

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle...ernational&col=

http://dawn.com/2013/03/08/for-many-pakist...s-the-new-west/

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.co...nis-china-costs

http://www.worldfinance.com/inward-investm...ntinues-to-grow

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archiv...3/10/2003556690

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/21/159531740/ch...some-pakistanis

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-05/...nt_12545018.htm

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-16...sights-on-China

This post has been edited by rivost: Mar 11 2013, 09:04 AM

china will grow larger

china & pakistan been allied for decades, both looking at india
another cinaman big ally is bangladesh if i not mistaken, cinaman funding alot of energy project there

bangladesh was pakistan

later bangla will flood china with their workers.

China gather allies

yes lo i remember look at the project there i was shock, not talking about 1 or 2, not 3 or 5 but 30-50 powerplant for bangladesh
imagine one 600megawatt powerplant cost 2billion, the capital involve is super

keyword

y those women gt sharizat face????

china will borrow them the money, china need to invest their money but not to overheat the domestic economy, so borrow foreign country money for project to be done by chinese company is the way to go.

soon or later they will kasi pressure to malaysia

and those drones from Americunt bombing the Pakis civilians like dog

Soon everyone in Asia will have Cinis name like Ee Bra Him Ah Lee

pakistan was always allied with china, due to india

i lol at the 'suffer poor perception among their own Muslim peers'

Ironically Pakistan 90% or more are Moslem but reject religious approach.

While in Malaysia Hudud and those religion extremist approach is choose by those 60% people in Malaysia or so called Majority people

it will be very interesting that if china really gets that much power and we have to learn mandrin to be competitive how will some tom fools react.

the opinioin of jobless pro-malay/english/tamil whatever folks will be comical. lol

then again they are jobless anyway

Yep, Pakistan almost had it all during the 60s alright...they could have been the most advanced Muslim nation in the world, better than Turkey.

Then came along General Zul al-Haq deciding to Islamisice everything, and now Pakistan is a real shithole....

so pakistan ke arah kuasa dunia

It's not about quantity, it's about quality. Muslim by name and not practising is not a muslim by the way.

pakistan woman r nice u know.. especially the mix blood 1.. i had 1 as my gf before..

Not only Pakistan-lah...You should have watch CCTV news.

China is actually more aggresive in Africa continent right now. They even started special African CCTV section recently.

This will happen to malaysia....
If we still dont change our mindset

Hope this helps their economy

they already complaining right now that some jobs require mandarin

If you watch CCTV sometime those Mat Salleh guest and the African guest's mandarin, you will be supprise their mandarin is much much better then average malaysian chinese mandarin.

If our CSL go there to speak, I think the Mat Salleh and the African guest will laught at him at the back.....

Challenges remain for Pakistan though. The upper class songlap all, and the working class still think Middle East / Arabs are the best model.

Yes the middle class want progress and are willing to 'look east' and learn, but Pakistan middle class only make up 11% of the population, according to Time magazine.

That alone is not enough to change the country.

2 days ago, CCTV Africa got news about an exhibition in Nairobi (I think).. They featured 2 African Uni students speaking & chatting to each others in Mandarin

Learn Chinese have use meh??

Even I study Chinese, but when the China pipul speak pu tong hua, I totally cannot understand a single word.. o.O

pok or no pok

Lol that's not a very good excuse. That's like asking why learn English lol Seriously, not even a word? Well once you get used to it, you'll understand. I have to say the Manchuria or Northeast China accent is pretty hard to understand though. But seriously just spend sometimes to watch China movies and you'll understand.

Ini...ini....menghakis hak istimewa Pakistan nih.....

Astro channel 509 I think

Waiting to see if them Pakis and others(Africans Asians) will be emigrating to China or seeking refugee/asylum in China. I am sure the Europeans and North American will learn and shout Yum Seng
p/s...also waiting to see if Malaysians will go to China and then jump aeroplane


This post has been edited by segamatboy: Mar 11 2013, 12:13 PM

Iran too, ring a bell?

inb4 Christian + Jew > Islam

we don't speak standard mandarin, so I don't see the problem, they learned their mandarin in China, we learned our mandarin in malaysia.

China can only help so much, it all depend on the people of Pakistan. Most of their mentality are very backward, at most only 15% want progress and modernization, the rest wants religion. China can pass economic strength to Pakistan, but if their people cannot manage it is still the same.

UK passed down a rich Burma and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), US passed down a thriving Philippines. What happen after that we all know.

Their accent quite strong, but I still manage to understand.

bukan malaysia ke?

ts sos is bias.

lol...c&c

So true. I really can't understand their mandarin. They speak dam fast

You get used to it after a while. I didn't really have trouble speaking to my brother's friends in Beijing

Yes quite true those mainland speak really fast. You should watch Mandarin drama more for an exercise

U tak suka, U keluar!

We will live in prosperity

See this is the main cause of malaysia brain drain

Yes yes, especially when dealing with technical terms, they use all Chinese term which I dun understand at all..

All question mark question mark.. Looks like a fool.. Better speak english with them.. lolx

thread pasal china n pakistan, last2 pasal islam dan malaysian muslims, i just dont understand

Hahahahahaha. Why suddenly about malaysiaa

There was a scene in George Clooney's Syriana where the Arabic nobility gave a backhanded compliment to the Chinese by sneering at the Americans, saying how the Chinese took the time and effort to actually learn Arabic when it comes to business negotiations and diplomacy.

There is no need for military conquest if you can turn the people to favor you in the first place.

It's all due to ignorance and arrogance

The Muslim world today is a bit like China 1700s. That time China was still very advanced and strong. It closed itself up and said it had no need for anything outside its border. Only until the opium war did it realized the Europeans were already so far ahead, and it was too late.

This post has been edited by rivost: Mar 11 2013, 07:26 PM

u forgot add this


-- sun tzi <the art of war>

Pakis..

soon, we'll conquer the world.

Shit man, time to brush up my mandarin.

when they laff dem kau loud wan..

nasi lemak tuu

how la wan become economic power. lukis lukis mohammad, all go ape shit - go protest in street burning infrastructure down. tis called political and economic instability.

thank god for the cinis and their godlessness, give tis moslems a good silly smacking if shit lidis happens

meanwhile in malaysia "mandarin in only for chinese" and "malay stay away from SKJC" propaganda spread

sorry to say

cina are independent worker are ownself too

not like us

go china travel n take look

Those from Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan all I can understand.

Last time my basketball kaki consist of about 10ish dude from China. Those from the above provinces, their mandarin is easy to understand. The more northern ones like beijing, tianjin fuiyooooo, super thick accent.

I straight go when I hear their accent