Shehbaz Sharif Is in China to Fix Pakistan’s Money Problem

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif landed in Hangzhou on Saturday, kicking off a four-day official visit from May 23 to 26, one that Islamabad is pitching as a milestone of bilateral warmth, but which is, beneath the ceremony, a hard-nosed economic mission by a government that cannot afford for it to fail.

Sharif's first stop is Hangzhou, where he will meet Zhejiang Province Party Secretary Wang Hao , participate in a CPEC Phase 2 business forum , attend MoU signing ceremonies , and visit the headquarters of Alibaba for investment discussions. He will then travel to Beijing for meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang . The delegation reads like a cabinet reshuffle: Deputy PM Ishaq Dar , Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal , IT Minister Shaza Fatima , and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar are all in tow, signalling that trade, technology, and agriculture are the real agenda drivers.

The visit also marks 75 years of Pakistan-China diplomatic relations , with Islamabad's Foreign Office calling it an opportunity to advance cooperation across CPEC, trade, investment, agriculture, IT, science, and people-to-people exchanges . Seventy-five years of friendship and they still need a forum to reconfirm it.

The centrepiece is CPEC Phase 2 , and the numbers from Phase 1 set a formidable benchmark. As of April 2026, CPEC has accumulated $25.93 billion in total investment, directly created 261,000 jobs , and added 8,000 megawatts to Pakistan's national grid effectively ending the chronic power shortages that had paralysed the country for decades. Phase 2 is a different animal entirely. The next phase pivots sharply from infrastructure to industry, agriculture, and mining sectors that directly generate economic growth and employment, with Pakistan specifically inviting Chinese investment into agriculture, textiles, renewable energy, communication technology, and consumer goods manufacturing .

A structured coordination mechanism has already been agreed, with Pakistan's Board of Investment sharing project details with the Chinese Embassy in advance, while Beijing provides curated lists of potential investors, an attempt to fix the persistent problem of Chinese business delegations visiting Pakistan and leaving without committing a single rupee. Whether the fix holds is another matter.

There are uncomfortable realities no communiqué will acknowledge. Security threats against Chinese nationals working in Pakistan remain unresolved, and Beijing has repeatedly flagged them. Xi Jinping has described the two countries as "good friends and all-weather strategic cooperative partners" with a friendship that is "rock-solid and unbreakable." Rock-solid, yes but alliances built on economic need have a habit of developing cracks precisely when the need becomes most acute.

For Islamabad, this visit is ultimately a reckoning with ambition , the ambition of a country that wants to industrialise, modernise, and matter, and is betting heavily that Beijing will write the cheque .