The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor at Ten: Taking Stock of the Belt and Road’s “Flagship” Project

Abb, Pascal; Boni, Filippo and Karrar, Hasan (2024). The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor at Ten: Taking Stock of the Belt and Road’s “Flagship” Project. In: Abb, Pascal; Boni, Filippo and Karrar, Hasan H. eds. China, Pakistan and the Belt and Road Initiative. The Experience of an Early Adopter State. Rethinking Asia and International Relations. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, pp. 1–13.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032633411-1

Abstract

This chapter presents some of the underlying dynamics characterizing the evolution of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Belt and Road Initiative's (BRI's) “flagship project.” We introduce three interweaving themes that are then developed in greater depth in the chapters included in this volume: what the case of CPEC means for Chinese global agency; the domestic political transformations in Pakistan that were set in motion by Chinese investments; and how the resulting projects have played out on the ground. In doing so, we suggest that the BRI is best understood as an interactive process between China and its international partners, which is producing interdependent relations between them. Contrary to prevalent narratives about the BRI and CPEC specifically, there is little evidence of a rising China simply reshaping the world to its liking and imposing its strategic designs on subservient countries. Rather, BRI projects are the product of complex negotiations, a source of unexpected setbacks and frustrations, and exercise a significant adaptive pressure back on China itself.

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