CPEC: A Win Win Trajectory for Pakistan and China.

• Author: Aijaz, Urooj
• Position: China Pakistan Economic Corridor

Byline: Urooj Aijaz

Power to influence others is an essential and common trait of inter-state diplomacy which can be classified in the domains of military, economic, political and visionary prospects of countries which may be in the form of soft power or the hard one. China is the real time example of soft power empowered by economic power through the tool of political power as it is said by the Jose saramago (Noble prize winner of 1998) that, "It is the economic power that determines political power and the government becomes the political functionaries of economic power" so, BRI generally and CPEC especially, is a unique apprehension of Chinese soft foreign policy. These days, CPEC has become the most widely discussed strand of Pak-China relations in the regional and global political discourse. The beginning of this bilateral relationship took place during the cold war, the time when in world politics 'Security' was a dominating phenomenon, and the common security threat i.e. India became the central point of this mutual partnership. That is why the China-Pak relations were developed mainly in two main domains of political and military collaboration. Both sides supported each other on all international and regional forums and also signed the mutual defense pacts.

Today, the prominent driver of Chinese foreign policy is the 'geo-economics'. So, the CPEC is an ambitious project which aims to change geo-economics of the region as it consists of multiple; road and rail networks along with the infrastructure development, energy generation units, and special economic zones (SEZs). It will connect the western autonomous region of China i.e. Xinjiang with the Gawadar port of Pakistan located on a critical choke point in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the signing of this commercial agreement i.e. CPEC, Pak-China friendship has entered a new era of socio-economic cooperation. This corridor entails a lot of opportunities and challenges as well for both countries. For instance, apart from infrastructure CPEC supposed to bring a wave of social interactions which is not experienced yet by both allies as social interaction remained the lowest ebb of this time tested strategic partnership, which remained a balancer in maintenance of peace in South Asia. Similarly, other than security, there are several challenges which Pakistan is facing and will face in the future too as the project proceeds. Governance issues, innovation less industry...