Dr. Guo Yaling
Prof. Dai Jianbing
Pakistan Research Center, Hebei Normal University
Pakistan has been called “BaTie” (Iron Brother) by Chinese for decades. Thanks to official media publicity, the image of Pakistan as a trustworthy brother has been deeply rooted in the hearts of Chinese people. In the context of initiatives of BRI and CPEC, people-to-people communication has become increasingly frequent. Chinese people know more about Pakistan by themselves.
What are Chinese people’s
sentiments for Pakistan?
According to our recent study of top 10 Chinese social media such as WeChat, Sina Weibo, Toutiao, Douyin (TikTok) from October 14, 2021 to January 11, 2022, Chinese people think highly of Pakistan. Among the seven sentiment scores we calculated, praise accounts for nearly 80%, with 5% amazement and 11% dislike.
Chinese people praise Pakistan-China cooperation along CPEC: power plants, highways, metro, to name a few. They applaud friendship between two countries and that between people. The interview of Dr. Moeed Yusuf 
by CCTV news anchor Lu Jian is widely disseminated among Chinese people. Yusuf defined the “Iron Brother” friendship in terms of Pakistan’s positive response to Chinese vaccines and Xinjiang issue. He said that Pakistan does not accept western countries’ narrative on Xinjiang and the majority of vaccines given to Pakistanis were Chinese Vaccines. The friendship between Pakistan and China can weather all storms. Chinese social app users give a lot of “likes” to this attitude.
What makes Chinese amazed is the rapid development of Gwadar Port and the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam. Gwadar Port, the flagship project and great pillar of CPEC, attracts public attention. The achievements in this project are surprising to most social media.
The sentiments
for Pakistan fluctuate
with current affairs.
Days before October 25, 2021, the 50th anniversary of the restoration of New China’s lawful seat in the United Nations, Chinese people were busy reposting the reminiscence of a journalist from Associated Press of Pakistan about the great moment. He witnessed the 26th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations that made the decision to restore all rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. His Chinese readers cheered for the success and shared the joy with Pakistani friends.
What are Chinese
people talking about?
Among the hot topics about Pakistan, politics ranks the first. Chinese also discuss on social media topics like society, finance, history and military affairs. Other topics such as entertainment, energy, sports, education, transportation and literature are less frequently mentioned.
China and Pakistan are strategic partners, therefore the political relationship is most discussed whenever a new international situation occurs. Chinese are keen to know what their best friend think of the current affairs. In addition, they are interested in potential finance cooperation between private enterprises, banks and financial organizations from the two countries. There is a growing willingness to conduct people-to-people financial cooperation in the future.
Chinese are interested in Pakistani history and society, showing their curiosity to the structure of the country and its historical ties with China. They seldom talk about sports, education or literature, a phenomenon sending the signal that mutual cultural exchanges ought to be promoted.
What are different voices?
Recently, some different voices appear on social media. Some are worried about the possibility of deepening US-Pakistan cooperation and its implications for China. They are afraid that behind the scenes, a number of civilian and military leaders in Pakistan support US. Chinese people are wondering if they are going to be betrayed by their best friends. The second focus of discussion is whether it is worthwhile to spend 14 years building Gwadar Port which can be used by China for only 43 years. Most voices are from Guangdong Province, with a very small part of which from Beijing.
