China and its beautiful southwestern neighbor Pakistan have had profound connections since ancient times. Businessmen, scholars and monks from the two nations traveled along the ancient Silk Road more than 2,000 years ago, traversing the perilous Karakoram Mountains to visit one another and establishing the groundwork for the communication between the Chinese and Indus Valley civilizations.

Modern-day China and Pakistan remain close friends who support one another in times of need. The Chinese affectionately refer to Pakistan as "Iron Pak" to emphasize their unbreakable ties. The two countries, as Chinese President Xi Jinping put it, are good brothers, good friends and good partners who remain devoted to win-win cooperation through thick and thin.

A bird's-eye view of the Karot hydropower project in Punjab Province, Pakistan. [Photo courtesy of the China Three Gorges Corporation]

Since President Xi proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) a decade ago, China and Pakistan's pragmatic cooperation has been lifted to a new level. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as an important pioneering project of the BRI, has injected new vitality into the mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation between the two countries. In 2015, President Xi paid a historic state visit to Pakistan, during which China-Pakistan relations were elevated to an all-weather strategic partnership, and the "1+4" cooperation framework of the CPEC, with the CPEC at the center and the Gwadar Port, energy, infrastructure development and industrial cooperation being the four key areas, was laid out. Thanks to the combined efforts of both sides, the plan outlined at the leadership level has been realized, and the CPEC, which is linked to the Silk Road Economic Belt in the north and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in the south, has become a BRI flagship project and helped forge a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future.