China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

A new discourse has emerged that China-Pakistan relations are in trouble, but that idea is not backed up by facts. 

China’s foreign minister made an unusually blunt demand for stability during his recent trip. Days later, Pakistan’s political unrest entered a new phase.

China has been demanding more security from Pakistan for its nationals residing and working in the Islamic country for a few years now.

On further investigation, the wave of stories about a new breakthrough in the China-Pakistan Railway are based on hot air.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has indeed provided China an opportunity, but there’s little evidence that Beijing has any concrete plan to address the country’s problems. 

The revival of the Gwadar power project based on imported coal could heighten Pakistan’s economic stress.

The “crown jewel” of CPEC is under an internet shutdown after a crackdown on protests.

For all the right statements and claims of the unbreakable, iron-clad relationship between Beijing and Islamabad, there was very little substance to Sharif’s trip.

While perceptions of China have soured in many parts of the world, very few Pakistanis have anything but positive sentiments toward Beijing.

Ethnic separatists have recently launched a series of targeted attacks on Chinese citizens living in Pakistan, with the latest murder happening in Karachi on September 28.

India has raised objections to the possibility of China and Pakistan involving third countries in the CPEC.

Pakistan’s CPEC is a case study in Chinese investment further disenfranchising ethnic minority groups – in this case, the Baloch.