The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor- Hard Reality Greets BRI's Signature Initiative
Date of Publication
2021 12:00 AM
Security Theme
Critical Infrastructure
Keywords
Critical Infrastructure, China, PRC, People's Republic of China, Pakistan, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC, Belt and Road Initiative, BRI, critical infrastructure, transportation systems sector, public transportation, railroad, dam sector, energy sector, fiber-optics, water treatment
Description
Beijing hoped to leverage its close partnership with Islamabad to build new transportation and power infrastructure across the country, setting Pakistan’s economy on an improved trajectory and providing a model that other BRI countries could follow. Left unspoken were the Chinese government’s likely hopes that CPEC would open up a direct route between China and the Indian Ocean, that a prosperous Pakistan would no longer be a hotbed of extremism, in turn stabilizing Xinjiang (though anger in Xinjiang is primarily driven by Beijing’s brutal policies there), and that a stronger Pakistan would advantage China over its strategic competitor, India, and by extension the United States.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor- Hard Reality Greets BRI's Signature Initiative
Beijing hoped to leverage its close partnership with Islamabad to build new transportation and power infrastructure across the country, setting Pakistan’s economy on an improved trajectory and providing a model that other BRI countries could follow. Left unspoken were the Chinese government’s likely hopes that CPEC would open up a direct route between China and the Indian Ocean, that a prosperous Pakistan would no longer be a hotbed of extremism, in turn stabilizing Xinjiang (though anger in Xinjiang is primarily driven by Beijing’s brutal policies there), and that a stronger Pakistan would advantage China over its strategic competitor, India, and by extension the United States.
