July 28: South China Morning Post report by Tom Hussain states that the umpire was on his side and the field had been set in his favour – there was little that stood between Imran Khan and power. And China took no chances. Even as Khan was taking his run-up to this week’s much discredited election, Beijing took its guard, preparing against any nasty inswingers the former pace bowler might spring on Pakistan’s staunchest ally. The prospects for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, “has triggered widespread speculation amid the West’s repeated hype of China’s ‘debt traps’,” said China’s state-run Global Times. “Beyond doubt, Beijing expects a higher degree of engagement by the new Pakistani government in the CPEC,” wrote Liu Lulu, described as a Chinese “expert” in retweets posted on election day by Lijian Zhao, the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese embassy in Islamabad.

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