"Pakistan's Gwadar Port is capable of serving as China's important energy transfer station. Oil from Africa and the Middle East will reach the port and go on to China via road, rail or pipelines. This is China's new energy channel," said Pan Zhiping, Director of the Central Asian Studies Institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

For a long time, energy security remains a large headache to China because of the fragile security environment in the Strait of Malacca. More than 80 percent of China's oil imported from the Middle East and Africa are transported via the strait. But China cannot influence the region, as in the event of conflict breaking out China could face a severe energy supply crisis.

Dr. Wang pointed out that Pakistan's proposed role, as China's energy corridor, is a positive and inspiring proposition, which is worth active and serious consideration and assessment.

According to him, China's efforts at multiplying its sources of strategic energy have encountered more barriers than expected. Against this general backdrop, the prospect of establishing a trade and energy corridor through Pakistan appears all the more important.

Because of its special position to China, an oil pipeline through Pakistan will supply another option other than the Strait of Malacca, thus making Pakistan an important link in China's energy security strategy.

According to a report submitted by the Xinjiang delegation to the annual session of the 10th National People's Congress in March, the energy transportation channel via Pakistan is 20,000 km shorter than the route via the Cape of Good hope, with transportation fees reduced by 25 percent and transportation time cut by over one month.

"This will greatly improve China's capacity of energy importation and ensure China's energy security," said Wang.

To China, Pakistan's role is far beyond the energy corridor. It is also the sea channel connection between China and the Indian Ocean and the land channel connecting China and Iran. Its unique geographical position connecting East Asia and West Asia and joining the Indian Ocean and the hinterland of Asia also supplies a new channel for Chinese enterprises to go global.

Culture and language studies

While Wang is quite optimistic about the future development of bilateral relations, he does have some concerns about the weaker links in bilateral ties.

"Economic cooperation, cultural exchanges and people-to-people contacts are the three main sectors that are less than satisfactory in Sino-Pakistani relations, especially cultural exchanges," he noted.

An obvious example is that Pakistani students are learning Chinese history from British textbooks. There are very few Chinese cultural or language centers in Pakistan, and Pakistanis who can speak Chinese are very few in number.

The areas of people-to-people contact and exchanges should be strengthened in a significant way, said Wang.

Some universities of the two countries are making efforts to develop cultural exchanges. On April 4, 2005, the Confucius Institute was unveiled in the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) in Islamabad, giving great impetus to the development of Chinese teaching in the university.

"NUML has outstanding advantages in Chinese education in Pakistan and Confucius Institute in Pakistan, the first such institute in a Muslim country. This will strengthen our determination in promoting Chinese teaching in Pakistan and raise our education levels," President of NUML Dr. Aziz Ahmad Khan told Beijing Review, adding that the institute will mainly be used to publish Chinese newspapers, translate Chinese books and movies.