The slow progress of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has reaffirmed the notion that increasing mistrust between the two countries is undermining the plan to build an economic corridor from Gwadar port on the Arabian coast to the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang, Policy Research Group (POREG) reported.
Aside from mistrust, the dearth of transparency and the Chinese tendency to shun locals have created resentment amongst the Pakistanis, who are expressing their ire through street protests and violence targeted at the Chinese.
The POREG report said Pakistan is not helping its cause either with its inability to clear dues worth USD 300 billion to Chinese companies engaged in CPEC power projects.
Given the dismal state of existing projects, no new CPEC projects were announced during Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Beijing visit in November.
Besides the delay in the implementation of projects, the security of Chinese nationals remains another bone of contention. Moreover, this growing resentment in Pakistan is finding expression in the attacks on the Chinese and Chinese assets.
“The attacks are offering perfect cover to the Baloch nationalists to strike at will firstly to put the authorities on notice, and, secondly, to register their presence and their demands,” the POREG report added.
During Shehbaz’s China visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that he is “highly concerned” about the safety of Chinese people in Pakistan and hoped that Islamabad will provide a “safe environment” for Chinese institutions and personnel.
The POREG report also said a change in the Pakistani government further impacted the progress of CPEC. “Several projects planned under the CPEC have been affected due to opposition by local residents. The projects were further affected when some Chinese nationals were killed in Pakistan,” it sai.
According to POREG, the scrapping of the CPEC authority may not lead to the scrapping CPEC itself but it will have repercussions in the CEPC like ventures the Chinese are running Belt and Road Initiative, BRI, elsewhere in the world.