Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has arrived in China for talks with his “iron brothers” that are likely to shape both his country’s financial stability and its involvement in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.





The discussions will also help to shape a partnership of sorts between China andSaudi Arabia in the economic development of Pakistan. Beijing stands to benefit from an extension of its overland belt and road route from Xinjiang to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, but runs the risk of being dragged into the intense rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran..





Khan hopes China will join Saudi Arabia, an equally close ally, and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) in pumping billions of dollars of emergency financial assistance into Pakistan’s threadbare coffers, to avert a balance of payments crisis caused by the profligate policies of his predecessor, Nawaz Sharif.





But the grandeur and warmth of China’s welcome is matched by its concerns about the Khan administration’s rebalancing of Pakistan’s foreign policy towards the West and Middle East. Its obsession with finding proof of corruption by Sharif in projects linked to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the estimated US$50 billion showcase of the belt and road, has also created concerns in Beijing.



