Another senior party leader said: “The Chinese have signalled their intent to keep helping Pakistan avoid a crisis, a default.” But he added that Chinese officials have urged their Pakistani counterparts “to take steps to reduce the large deficit”.
Chinese making this suggestions would have been ignorant of the trade deficit of Pakistan vis-e-vis China
Otherwise no sane Chinese would make such rediculous suggestion.
I think you misunderstood deeper meaning behind the part you quoted from the article. China is helping to advise and urge the Pakistani government to reduce aggregate trade deficits, specific countries matter little if the overall structure makes sense. Everyone has the data on trade balance between Pakistan and China, they are not ignorant of the facts.
Some goods are necessary for the CPEC construction and industrial zones such as certain construction equipment, capital goods, and power generation equipment that Pakistan doesn't produce. Yes, there is a trade deficit with China due to infrastructure build up and industrialisation but it is necessary for industrialization. Maybe Pakistan can buy equipment elsewhere, but that would likely further increase deficits due to increased costs. The point the Chinese official is making is that, do what makes sense for Pakistan's finances. If it makes sense to buy from China do it, if it makes sense to buy from else where then do it. The other component of the message is to urge Pakistan to focus on export industries and setup structures to promote their growth. Structurally speaking, to industrialise rapidly Pakistan must import capital good and semi-finished components that it cannot produce but it can balance it out though exports.
Maybe Pakistan won't resolve its trade deficit with China anytime soon, but that doesn't mean it can't become a net exporter. Focusing on just the trade balance with China is quite narrow minded. FYI China has a trade deficit with South Korea, Australia, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Angola, and Saudi Arabia. Does that prevent China from having an aggregate trade surplus? Not at all. China imports capital goods and components from South Korea, Switzerland, Germany and Japan, raw materials and agricultural goods from Australia, Brazil, Angola and Saudi Arabia. These countries are the inputs into China's industrial machine. Should China stop importing integrated circuits from South Korea (surplus with China) and instead import it from Mexico (deficit with China) to forcibly balance trade? or maybe not buy it at all to spite South Korea for the trade deficit? China buys certain goods from certain nations because it makes sense to do so. It wouldn't make sense to forcibly balance trade with these nations, it would only hurt China itself. The same would be true for Pakistan.
What is important is working on building an export market for Pakistan.
