I think the news is credible since if it was a propaganda then india would have loved to make it as if a Chinese was posted in ISI headquarters. That would make Pakistan look really bad if it was one sided.
In this case however, Pakistani officer being posted as liaison to coordinate joint intelligence missions within deep and around india (I assume) using ground, air, human and space based assets makes Pakistan appear as an independent strong ally. Which provides a good image boost for Pakistan. India would not have therefore been stating it if it was not true. US or Europe was likely the source of this news for india or Pakistan (or china) strategically leaked it.
If we don't have such arrangements with China, then we should as it can have very positive outcomes for us.
We should even set up joint technology based training and coordination task force specializing in situation awareness and assessment, intelligence gathering and information generation, propagation and assimilation for creating influence and policy shaping etc. using advanced technology driven approaches. It will not only increase our technical and technological capability but will also
1. Familiarize Pakistani intelligence agents with specific Chinese developed/modified equipment, software and other technologies and techniques that have made china a truly capable global intelligence gathering spymaster.
2. allow increasing access to locally imported (from China) strategic and non strategic intelligence analysis technology based systems and have access to associated specialist training. We can use such equipment and technologies not just for intelligence gathering but also for stealing technology related information and industrial espionage from around the world enabling us not just advance our military industry but also our civilian industry. Even USA steals such technologies, ideas and research using NSA ranging from stealth technology know how (from Petr Ufimtsev) to titanium fabrication for SR-71 from Russia and a lot more (from declassified documents). India is already is the fourth largest technology thief in the world as per reports (google it). We should start systematic corporate espionage too on an industrial scale and using properly formed department equipped and trained using the most advanced technologies possible. Chinese expertise in this area will help a lot.
3. increase trust among Chinese that Pakistan is a trustworthy ally that can keep secrets. That will enable greater sharing of not just intelligence but also specific manner and technologies to collect intelligence that Chinese are using. It will allow eventually sharing of workload and financial allocations for more sophisticated operations.
4. enable Pakistan to have access to global large scale intelligence gathering machinery of China. An increased more open access to this machinery will vastly multiply not just raw intelligence gathering capability of Pakistan but will also enable learning of more enhanced specialist techniques that china has perfected and whose learning requires decades of experience and huge sums of financial spending.
5. But most importantly such collaboration will make Pakistan to think and learn how to shape globally influence strategies that bring long term benefits to a country. So that we can get out, play more powerful role outside of little india (i.e. gaining influence in Africa and turning it to our market for Pakistani products as well as source of important mineral and other resources and so on).
6. Our liaison with China and trust demonstrated with them, will make eventually russia more comfortable with us, allowing Pakistan to make similar arrangements with Russians, further rising into intelligence and military capability. This is important since by working in such manner with China we would show Russia that we are decoupled, and independent from US (finally and fully trustworthy while america's india is not).
7. Last but not least, it will enable Pakistan army and intelligence community to learn (like our air force has already learned) that developing and funding local higher education based research centers, cultivating high tech start ups and technology parks as well as creating specialist research centers such as say "centers for cyber-physical, distributed and artificial intelligence based warfare, information warfare and intelligence operations" are not just government's responsibility but also ISI and Pakistan army should push for such research centers and even partly fund them where possible. We must create such research centers urgently no matter the cost or time/resources required. WE will soon need them especially in the near future when cyber and A.I. based military developments will begin to emerge on large scale and around our neighborhood.
Therefore we should welcome such equality based collaborations. Note from my post there is no need to take the impression that Pakistani itself is not capable enough. Pakistan and our institution have their own independent demonstrated immense capabilities. Collaboration with china will help china too especially how things work in the greater Muslim world, and Pakistan's second to none reach deep within the second largest country in the world namely india as well as Pakistan's vast experience that it gained while working with and against the west and US in particular.
So its win win for both. That's' what being ally means. Good for Pakistan, really bad for our enemies.
