Security fears for China-Pakistan corridor as Xi ends visit
ISLAMABAD: Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday hailed a $46 billion economic corridor as a “historic development opportunity” for Pakistan, but security fears linger over the project, which involves major construction in highly unstable areas.
Pakistani and Chinese officials on Monday signed more than 50 accords to inaugurate the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor, which will create a network of roads, railways and pipelines linking China’s restive west to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.
The project is part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” plan to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia. It will give China easier access to Middle Eastern oil via the deepwater port of Gwadar in southwest Pakistan.
The Chinese plan also aims to boost Pakistan’s underperforming economy, which the IMF projects will grow 4.3 percent this year, and tackle its energy crisis.
Beijing and Islamabad have long enjoyed close ties and Xi’s speech to Pakistan’s parliament Tuesday was full of the flowery rhetoric that typifies their official exchanges.
“Today Pakistan has a historic development opportunity. Prime Minister Sharif has crafted the vision of the Asian tiger dream,” he told lawmakers before flying on to Indonesia for a summit.
But away from the handshakes and backslapping, there are real security concerns over much of the plan, which relies on developing Gwadar — control of which was passed to a Chinese company in 2013.
The port lies east of the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the Middle East’s crude production passes.
But linking Gwadar to the rest of Pakistan and on to the western Chinese city of Kashgar, 3,000 km (1,860 miles) away, would involve major infrastructure work in Baluchistan.
This is one of Pakistan’s most unstable provinces and has been dogged for over a decade by a bloody separatist insurgency.
Ethnic Baluch rebels, who oppose Gwadar’s development while the province is not independent, have in the past blown up numerous gas pipelines and trains and attacked Chinese engineers.