Pakistan's ambassador highlights academic exchanges with China during Tsinghua j-school visit
- Bakhtawar Tauseef
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
By BAKHTAWAR TAUSEEF
Global Business Journalism reporter
In an event that combined diplomacy and education, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Khalil ur Rahman Hashmi, joined faculty and students at Tsinghua University on May 16 to mark a milestone in the two countries' joint doctoral program in global communication.
Hosted by Tsinghua’s School of Journalism and Communication, the event spotlighted the university’s first group of students conducting fieldwork under a joint supervision initiative with Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University. The program jointly supervised by both institutions is positioned as part of China’s strategy to promote deeper academic and cultural ties. The event — and the new initiative — highlight the growing China-Pakistan soft power collaboration.
Three Chinese students, Wang Haoxue, Liu Bei and Wen Sanmei, took the stage to share their firsthand experiences in Pakistan, ranging from academic conferences and radio hosting to hands-on field research in the country’s northern regions. Their stories detailed the hospitality and cultural exchange, challenged the usual narrative of Pakistan often seen in international media.
Watch the GBJ video from YouTube featuring Tsinghua students conducting field research in Pakistan
Wen shared her experience of traveling to Gilgit-Baltistan and interviewing residents in isolated mountain communities near the Khunjerab Pass. She recalled how strangers offered food, gifts,and
emotional support without ever asking her nationality.
“They didn’t care where I came from,” she said. “They just gave me their best wishes.”
Liu Bei, who lived in Pakistan for two years, described hosting an English-language show on FM 87.6 in Islamabad and conducting discourse analysis on records of Dawn and Pakistan Times. “It wasn’t just research,” she said. “It was a two-way exchange. I shared Chinese culture, and they taught me about theirs.”
Wang, recounted his participation in a Buddhist heritage conference in Swat and presented a historical overview of the Sanju Trail which is a lesser-known route that historically connected China and South Asia prior to the construction of the Karakoram Highway.
“The stories shared here today show the human side of our partnership which is fact-based, unfiltered, and grounded in lived experience,” Ambassador Hashmi said in his keynote remarks. “They reflect not only what the students saw, but also what resonated with them. That’s how long-lasting connections are built."
While the event focused on academic storytelling, it also included a symbolic book presentation to
the ambassador. Three titles were gifted: a Chinese translation of "The History of Pakistan," by Ahmad
Hasan Dani, introduced by Professor Guo Yaling of Hebei Normal University; a photographic
monograph on Gandhara art, compiled by veteran National Geographic China photographer Zhang
Chaoyin; and "Yangtze and Indus valley: A journey of two rivers from one origin," presented by
Professor Li Xiguang.
As part of the presentation, the organizers also shared historical documents, including a People’s Daily front page from six decades ago that reported on early milestones in China-Pakistan relations underscoring the diplomatic legacy the academic program aims to build upon.
Tsinghua’s Professor Li Xiguang, who leads the Pakistan Culture and Communication Research Center, emphasized that these exchanges support China’s broader goal of building international communication.
“This is not just academic,” he said. “This is narrative infrastructure.”
The university also previewed its next project a collaborative oral history of the Chinese and Pakistani workers who built the Karakoram Highway from 1966 to 1979. With fewer than 200 surviving builders remaining across both countries, researchers are racing to record their testimonies before the opportunity disappears. Professor Zhang Li from Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics, who will lead the study, said it will explore how the highway became a bridge for people-to-people connectivity beyond its strategic importance.
Ambassador Hashmi praised the initiative and committed the embassy’s support, calling the
highway “a symbol of friendship built not just with concrete, but with trust, sacrifice and cultural
exchange.”
As false information becomes harder to spot, especially with the rise of AI tools, the ambassador
ended by stressing the need for truth-based storytelling.
“We face a growing challenge to tell fact from fiction,” he said. “That’s why this work is important.”
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