Understanding Challenges to CPEC and the future of strategic alignment in South Asia

Abstract

Seven decades-long mutual relationship of Pakistan and China is considered as endurable bilateralism which survived all the troubled political weathers during the cold war and also in the post-cold war era. This mutual relationship grew up in two major domains i.e. political and military cooperation. In 2015 both countries have entered into a new era of economic cooperation by signing a commercial agreement i.e. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is a flagship project of Chinese gigantic plan of economic and social cooperation through regional connectivity; the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by the President Xi Jinping in 2013.CPEC has become a widely discussed aspect of Pak-China relations for two reasons. First, CPEC provides the shortest route to China towards the Middle East and Europe owing to the geo-strategic location of Pakistan especially, the Gwadar port. Second, both China and Pakistan want to utilize the economic dividends of CPEC for the socio-economic uplift of their underdeveloped areas, for instance, the western autonomous region of China, Xinjiang and Balochistan province of Pakistan. In fact, domestic economic challenges are essentially important but both states have to face multiple regional and global challenges. Today economic objectives of states have become the driving force behind the foreign policies of all major global and regional powers and economic motives are at the heart of all ongoing global conflicts and competitions. Thus, in the 21st century, ‘Geo-economics’ is dominating the ‘Geo-politics’. Therefore, the culmination of CPEC can pose challenges to both states because, at one end, China has to face tough competition from the countermeasures pursued by the US and its allies. While on the other hand, Indian opposition to CPEC is equally a considerable challenge for both China and Pakistan. Furthermore, Pakistan has additional challenges like security concerns, governance issues, lack of integrated policies mechanism and innovation-less and technologically dependent administrative apparatus. In sum, CPEC is facing external and internal challenges which are indeed a guarantee for regional peace in South Asia. This paper will explore the attached multiple challenges to CPEC which Pakistan and China are supposed to tackle and another hypothetical connotation of CPEC i.e. Complex Projection of Economic Competence.