China's Private Army by Alessandro Arduino

Author:Alessandro Arduino
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

3.6 Sino-Pakistan ‘All Weather Friendship’

In China’s modern history , several China watchers have defined the Chinese strategic partnership with other countries as a temporary setting that is going to change as fast as the sands of geopolitical equilibrium. Therefore, one is surprised to see the Sino-Pakistan ‘all weather friendship’ (Kabraji 2012) counting US$63 billion in planned investments. When it comes to Chinese ODI, it is always necessary to differentiate from pledged investment and actual realized investment, as seen in Africa during the 1990s. Most of the time, the stated numbers do not equal the realized investments, or are just the sum of previous and ongoing ODI . But in the case of CPEC , even if the sum of US$63 billion is not fully reached, it is undoubtedly one of the largest Chinese investment projects abroad. The CPEC is at the core of the BRI initiative, not only in absolute financial but also in geopolitical terms. The CPEC comprises China’s western Xinjiang province region, populated predominantly by ethnic Muslims, and volatile security situations exist along the belt in several Pakistani regions that are riddled with ethnic conflict, terrorist threats and interregional disputes. Also, several areas along the CPEC that are supposed to benefit from Chinese investments could witness the sudden disappearance of Chinese funds. A shift in Chinese investment towards the more developed provinces such as Punjab, due to better political lobbying in Islamabad, could ignite anti-Chinese resentment in areas not poised to benefit from sudden influx of Yuan.

The economic corridors are a substantial part of the Chinese bid to revive trade across Central Asia into Europe via railways, ports and highways. According to the initial CPEC blueprints, US$11 billion will be allocated exclusively to connectivity and energy infrastructure. Since 2011, with the gradual erosion of US-Pakistan security and economic cooperation, the Sino-Pakistani friendship has progressively strengthened. Though rhetoric is espoused by the two countries about an ‘all weather friendship’, the cooperation is not based on common cultural or ideological values, but pragmatic economic and security necessities. These necessities range from the common fight against terrorism to balancing Indian-US relations in the area.

Since 2010, a nefarious mix of internal frictions and tensions with neighbouring countries has resulted in increased levels of Pakistani political violence.

Examples can be drawn on daily basis, ranging from improvised explosive device (IED) attacks to assaults on police stations and religious structures. In 2016 alone, the military campaign military against the Pakistani Taliban, as well as the Sunni-Muslim Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, triggered a backslash of terrorist bombing in the Baluchistan provincial city of Quetta, killing more than 70 people.21 The independent incidents in Baluchistan , however, did not generate great concern as they were a localized threat compared to the international risks posed by terror organizations operating along the Pakistani borders, such us the Taliban and Islamic State (IS). Unfortunately, one of the three Chinese economic corridors will cross through all of Baluchistan . Baluchistan will be a key strategic area, hosting infrastructure and facilitating passage of Chinese goods

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