Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who addressed Pakistani Parliament on Sunday morning at the conclusion of his three-day visit here, aptly titled his speech, Shaping the future through thick and thin. In these seven words lies a message that no Pakistani, in power or out of it, should ever forget. It beckons us to follow the Chinese unmatched example in shaping the future, if we want to march ahead towards a prosperous Pakistan. At the same time, the title reaffirms Beijings assurance to work together with us under all circumstances. The question here is whether our West-leaning leadership is prepared to pick up the hint and cast our lot with China. After all, it had been rebuffed, time and again, in securing help from the US in matters crucial to our economic advancement, rather economic survival, helplessly watching it shower favours on India, without as much as persuading it to resolve disputes with us. Few would doubt that the US and allies have been taken in by New Delhis lure of serving as a bulwark against Beijings growing influence, and that their overtures of friendship to Islamabad are just a ploy to keep it tied down to them in the hope that its relationship with them would be long-lasting. Building on its past performance of establishing infrastructure in the various fields of Pakistans economy and defence production, China has once again proven its sincerity in maintaining and developing firm ties with it by concluding deals worth a huge amount of $35 billion. These deals aim at executing projects that would meet the dire needs of industry, agriculture and social life, particularly in a developing economy like ours. Projects like wind and solar energy to receive an investment of $6.5 billion, and one-gigawatt nuclear power plant within the framework of making available an additional 8000 megawatt of power by 2025 to our national grid would help sustain the tempo of growth of the country. Rail transportation, the cheapest means of travel once preferred by the common folk and which has been suffering at the hands of government neglect, would also receive due attention. And if Prime Minister Gilanis words are to be believed, Pakistan would make serious efforts to raise the quantum of bilateral trade to $15 billion by 2015. One would hope that the words, China will never give up on Pakistan, uttered by Wen Jiabao would continue to resound in the minds of the ruling leadership and the heads of the various political parties with whom he interacted during the visit. These golden words ought to have a telling impact on them, and should prompt them to reorient Pakistans policies to strengthen our ties further with China. Our leaders should know that even the people at large, who are not supposed to have much sense of relations with foreign countries, would go the whole hog with them. They know for sure who are Pakistans genuine friends.