‘Friendship’ road is all about China’s growth, say Pakistanis

China says our friendship is as high as the Himalayas and as deep as the sea, but it has no heart...There is no benefit for Pakistan. It’s all about expanding China’s growth

TASHKURGAN: The China-Pakistan Friendship Highway runs over 1,300 km from the far western Chinese city of Kashgar through the world’s highest mountain pass and across the border.

For China, the two-lane thoroughfare symbolises a blossoming partnership, nourished with tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment.

But for many Pakistani businessmen living and working on the Chinese side of the border, the road is a one way street.

“China says our friendship is as high as the Himalayas and as deep as the sea, but it has no heart,” said Pakistani businessman Murad Shah, as he tended his shop in Tashkurgan, 120 kilometres from the mountain pass where trucks line up to cross between China’s vast Xinjiang region and Pakistan.

“There is no benefit for Pakistan. It’s all about expanding China’s growth,” Shah said, as he straightened a display of prelion cious stones.

The remote town of around 9,000 is at the geographic heart of Beijing’s plans to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), connecting Kashgar to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar.

The project is a crown jewel of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative.

In 2013, Beijing and Islamabad signed agreements worth $46 bil- to build transport and energy infrastructure along the corridor, and China has upgraded the mountain road better known as the Karakoram Highway.

While both countries say the project is mutually beneficial, data shows a different story.

Pakistan’s exports to China fell by almost 8% in the second half of 2016, while imports jumped by almost 29%.

Pakistani businessmen in Xinjiang see few benefits from CPEC, complaining of intrusive security and capricious customs arrangements.

“If you bring anything from China, no problem,” said Muhammad, a trader in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, who declined to give his full name. But he said tariffs on imported Pakistani goods are “not declared. Today it’s 5%, tomorrow maybe 20%. Sometimes, they just say this is not allowed”.