September 5, 2004

Overzealous traders and fun-seeking Pakistanis are giving the country a bad name in China

ABDULMURAT, an Uyghur high school graduate of the Kashgar Pedagogical Institute who has been working in the travel and hotel industry for 10 years, remembers watching the opening of the Khunjerab border between Xinijiang and Sost, Pakistan, in the 80s with great interest. He has since interacted with many Pakistanis:

“When the border was first opened”, he recalls, “the Uyghur Muslims had high expectations. For the first time a Muslim country and society were opening up to the Muslims of Xinjiang in many decades.” The Uyghur elders had raised people’s expectations by telling the youth and the public that these Muslims have more integrity and are of sound character. They are trustworthy and more knowledgeable about Islam and the contemporary world. The Muslims across the border would be fair in their dealings,loving and peaceful.

People were quite emotional when the border opened. There were exchanges of visits by officials and private people from both sides. “Between mid-80s and 90s we received more or less good people” Abdulmurat says. “They were visitors that mostly came from noble families, were educated and learned. They actually raised people’s expectations.

“However, during the 90s, the flow of people increased but the quality of visitors declined. The Uygur Muslims were at times ashamed to see Pakistani visitors, in the arms of Hanso streetwalkers, drunk, in broad daylight. They fought in the streets, restaurants and bars with gangsters.”

Abdulmurat’s worried forehead, stretched even more. “Some of the Pakistanis did not even spare innocent and hospitable rural families in the countryside; they stayed with their families as Muslims, married young girls and after they were pregnant they left them. Some of them played this game simultaneously with two or more girls in different villages and rotated between them and finally fled the country, ruining many poor families.

“Some of them apart from working for their benefactors in Pakistan, posed as big business tycoons and entered into fake agreements with state enterprises or private companies and used the loose LC instruments to leverage opportunities. Obviously they were interested in making money overnight and this cheating destroyed the image of Pakistani business companies and the people” the Uyghar opined.

This view was not shared by a bunch of Pakistani businessmen. One of them said, “These Muslims in Xinjiang are themselves, only concerned about food, dance and liquor. But they would always talk of halal and haram food and moral values when they meet Pakistanis.”

The distaste continued, “They are not good at running businesses, honouring trade agreements and generally, with some exceptions, even not very efficient and competent as government officials. It’s actually the Hansos (Chinese) who are more powerful, competent and intelligent in all walks of life here.”

During a recent trip to Kashgar, I visited a shopping arcade at a four-star hotel. We saw a serious group of Pakistani traders bargaining with a Chinese saleswoman. The discussion turned more vocal when a salesman also joined in. We heard him saying in English to the Pakistanis, “If you want to buy, buy. If not then you can go” he said pointing towards the exit. Then he murmured something in Chinese. We asked our guide what he was saying. She said without mincing any words, “He said these Pakistanis are cheap and time wasters. They don’t trust us. They want $1000 silk carpet in just $100 and insist me to produce a guarantee that it is pure silk!”

“Pakistanis are not good” said one farmer, who was in his 50s, in Artush countryside, which is popular for government supported grape farms. When this scribe probed why he was saying this, he just said, “No, No, Pakistanis are not trustworthy.”

But surprisingly on the same street we found cartons lined up for transportation to Pakistan. ‘Pak-China grapes 10 kilograms’, was written in English on each carton. An elderly woman with three young girls was carrying these cartons from their field onto the roadside. When they saw us, they gave us business smiles and said, ‘Pakistani?’. We replied in affirmative. We discussed with them about the quantity, quality, rates etc. and also asked about their working relations with Pakistanis and they said it was their first encounter with them and so far it was good.

Our Chinese interpreter and guide, Mei Li, who had also visited Pakistan twice and has been to Islamabad and up to Lahore, observed that, “Actually what I think is (that) a majority of the Pakistanis visiting Xinjiang by road through Khunjerab or by air from Islamabad, to Urumqi are either from rural feudal or farming backgrounds or belong to the middle and lower middle class traders or unemployed youth of the cities. Very few educated people visit this area.

She further said, “I know Pakistan is quite a closed society for these groups and there is little openness and opportunities for entertainment. When they land at Kashgar or Urumqi, they are in a new environment, which is modern, open, but at the same time due to Chinese and Uyghur traditions, hospitable, friendly and welcoming. Here they see women nicely dressed, cheerful and participating in all walks of life. They see bars, musical clubs etc. and they immediately fall prey to the glittering lights and nights of Kashgar” Mei continued.

“Due to lack of experience and knowledge about the Chinese market, society, lifestyles and government systems, most of them end up with prostitutes in bars and clubs, lose all their money and sometimes encounter criminals, smugglers and corrupt officials.

Locals contend that some Pakistanis in the garb of trade and tourism, also appear to be involved in exporting brands of extremism to this Muslim majority province. The customs, immigration and the Peoples Security Bureau (PSB) are particularly stern and watchful of anybody with such possible intentions. In fact after 9/11, every state, whether Islamic or otherwise have developed their own methods and mechanisms to deal with this challenge, and China is efficiently and effectively working to control, quarantine and protect its people from ‘extremist trends’.

A seasoned Pakistani trader who claimed to have been trading on this route for the last 15 years and having settled businesses inside China, was also not appreciative of the majority of his fellow Pakistanis who visit Xinjiang:

“Actually the problem is we have four categories of people who come to this place: there are those who work for big agents or directly for the importers and exporters in Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi, who are serious businesspersons and have a lot of money to invest. There is a second category who are small traders and importers and exporters, having limited only to invest, who come here to buy products to sell through their own shops where in Gilgit or other place. The third category is mostly young boys who work as ‘carriers’ for the agents, and also do some window shopping and try to sell it anywhere in Pakistan. These people have no investment of their own and they bet on the opportunities to get goods to carry either way. The fourth category of people are just tourists who come here to enjoy life and if they find something interesting or get some goods to carry with, they try it,” he concluded.

However, the Pakistani trader late had some additional thoughts. “People coming from Punjab and the NWFP are mostly involved in acts like smuggling banned items, prostitution, illegal marriages and sometimes getting involved in religious activities etc. Those from the Northern Areas fall under category two and three and most of them lavishly spend their days and nights in restaurants and musical nightclubs.

“But let me tell you one thing. This hype and trend is reversing. Our boys have learned a lot of lessons. The Chinese government has also come down heavily on such transgressors” he informed.

The government, the chambers of commerce, the media, the academia and the broader civil society should work together to develop short to medium term strategies to facilitate and provide training to local traders and investors in import export procedures and documentation, WTO protocols, international business and travel ethics and business management skills, besides making import-export finance available locally, for small and medium traders.

Both Pakistan and China should jointly work to promote this whole area, this part of the old silk route, the Northern Areas and Xinjiang region, as a major tourist destination and design plans and strategies to integrate the isolated and underdeveloped economy of the Northern area with that of Xinjiang and border regions of other surrounding countries to get benefits from the opportunities by the opening of Central Asia and the vast opportunities offered by the major economic growth in China’s western regions.

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