CPEC And Its Impact On Pak-China Relationship

It all began in 1950 when rest of the world walked out China walked in, played a role in underpinning Pakistan’s economy and turned out to be an unfeigned shield for Pakistan in its time of recession. This friendship did pass through a rough patch in its early period as it was observed in 1960 which was probably due to the difference between the countries with one being the communist and the other being the capitalist. However, the relationship got bolstered up after the war between China and India and the Pak-Indo war.

The Indian currency devalued in 1949 which badly jolted Pakistan’s economy. Despite the fact that the economy faced a setback this devaluation of Indian currency proved to be a blessing in disguise for Pakistan as its trade with China got strengthened up. Mr. Zafarullah being aware of the Chinese mindset played a pivotal role in making Pakistan understood the benefits of having alliance with China. Pakistan had to join hands with China to trade their cotton for coal on barter basis because Pakistan’s economic state became flabby due to the devaluation of Indian currency. Pakistan provided support to China’s seat at United Nations Security Council. 1953’s trade agreement between China and Pakistan and 1963’s The Sino-Pakistan agreement exhilarated the Pakistan-China relationship. From the year 1970, this relationship got better and better. China showed support to Pakistan in its military, especially the nuclear and missile programs, and the different sectors of the economy. Even during the time of sanctions which were foisted on Pakistan by United States. China proved its long standing friendship with Pakistan in the form of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a network of transit routes being built by China to provide China an easy accessibility to the sea through the Gwadar Port of Baluchistan, Pakistan. It is a mega project aiming to connect Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan. With this strategic plan of China, Pakistan is receiving the benefits from the Chinese growing economy. This process of investments and partnerships commenced in 1990; however, a concrete plan of action; an agreement was signed during a meeting which was between the President Hu Jintao and General Pervez Musharraf in the year 2003, Beijing. This agreement helped Pakistan so much so that its trade grew from$1 billion in the year 1998 to $15.5 billion in the year 2015.

This project of around 46 billion dollars includes the construction of railways, highways and pipelines for the transportation of oil and gas. It is planned to develop 2,395 km of China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which will connect Gwadar to Kashghar (China) and also planned to connect Karachi Lahore Motorway (KLM) which will be a 6-lane controlled access. KLM is the Phase 1 of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Talking about the railways, The Network of railway in Pakistan is 7,791 route kilometers, 452 trains, 15,948 freight wagons, 1,732 passenger coaches. Pakistan railway has encountered worst deadlock due to unavailability of locomotives. There has been a drastic decline in passenger and the freight services in the past years. Joint efforts are made by   Government of the People’s Republic of China and Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to upgrade ML-I and to setup Havelian Dry Port of Pakistan. A project named as “Infrastructure for e-Office at Ministry of Railways” is also initiated.

The CPEC is covering the development of Gwadar Port. When Gwadar will be linked with Kashgar, this port will bring China closer to other ports of Middle East. This deep sea port with its strategic warm water is located on the southwestern Arabian Sea, Balochistan. It is 120 kilo meter from the Iranian border and 700 km from the city of Karachi. The phase- 1 of this port is developed by the China Government and Pakistan with total investment of 288 million dollars. “Gwadar Port East bay Expressway” has been agreed under the funding by CPEC to connect the port with the highway. It will pass by the bay of east of city of Gwadar. The estimated length of it is 18.98 km, including a 4.3 km along and off-shore and 14.6 km on the shore.

Under the CPEC work with regard to telecommunications has been done.  A project titled as “Optical Fiber Cable from Rawapindi to Khunjrab” has been completed. Considering the energy crisis in Pakistan CPEC has allocated a major proportion of its funds to energy generation and transmission. It involves the construction of different coal, wind, gas and Hydro power plants.

CPEC has a lot of potential, but still it is faced by a lot of controversies. The province KPK and Baluchistan have their reservations regarding the routes. The government is giving more priority to Eastern routes. Eastern routes seem to be costing more based on population displacement, loss of production and losing productive land. Stress is placed on treating the western route same as that of the eastern route.

 This unison amidst China and Pakistan is beneficial for both the countries. First the silk route (karakoram highway) and now the CPEC these two mega projects have brought two countries quite closer. Both countries are going to get benefited. Pakistan can recover its economic losses in the past. China does not have allies as it has problems with all its neighbors (Vietnam, japan etc) so, with all this growing investments, Pakistan comes as a good ally and also as a source of connection with the Muslim world. With the CPEC China would get access to the Gwader port. This CPEC and all other projects and policies (e.g “Constructive Engagement” policy) would add into the China’s dream of becoming a global leader, this concept is a part of policy of China “Go Global 2001”. One can say that China needs CPEC because they want to increase its periphery of influence, creates a stable supply of energy; consolidate its dream of becoming global and trading routes whilst Pakistan will receive the benefits of this dream of China.