Corridor Calculus

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Corridor Calculus : China Pakistan Economic Corridor & China's Comprador Investment Model in Pakistan westward opening-up to deepen communication and cooperation with Central, South and West Asian countries, make it a key transportation, trade, logistics, culture, science and education centre, and a core area on 223 the Silk Road Economic Belt” , it doesn't automatically follow that Xinjiang will depend critically, much less solely, only on the road through Pakistan for becoming the pivot of the Belt. Even Kashgar, which is supposed to be the one end of the CPEC, borders five countries — Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In other words, Pakistan is only one of 224 five possible land ports. What is more, if the idea is to connect China with South Asia, then the CPEC connects only a peripheral part of South Asia, and the bulk of South Asia neither needs Pakistan, nor the CPEC, to connect to China. 225 223 st 'Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21 Century Maritime Silk Road', issued by NDRC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Commerce, 28/03/2015, accessed at http://en.ndrc.gov.cn/newsrelease/201503/t20150330_669367.html?COLLCC=2998445935&] 224 Cui Jia, 'Taking the high road', China Daily Africa 09/05/2014, accessed at http://africa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2014- 05/09/content_17495655.htm 225 Source: China Daily, accessed at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/silkroad/img/attachement/jpg/site1/20150716/0023ae5d91e01711639943.jpg 52
Corridor Calculus : China Pakistan Economic Corridor & China's Comprador Investment Model in Pakistan Be that as it may, and notwithstanding the somewhat secondary or tangential status accorded to the CPEC in the NDRC document, the Chinese leadership has, verbally at least, given a fairly important, even central, role to the CPEC in the entire OBOR initiative. President Xi Jinping has called it a 226 'major project of the Belt and Road initiative'. Prime Minister Li Keqiang has labelled it a 'flagship project for the connectivity between China and its 227 228 neighbouring countries’ , and also called it a 'project of strategic value'. Calling the CPEC an important part of the OBOR initiative, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan has said that it 'borders the Silk Road Economic Belt st to the north and connects to the 21 Century Maritime Silk Road to the south'. According to the ambassador, 'all of the basic concepts, thinking and 229 policy of the OBOR initiative can be applied to the CPEC'. Spatial Advantage For the Pakistanis, regardless of whether or not the CPEC is central to the OBOR, the fact that China is ready to pump in money to build infrastructure for a corridor from Xinjiang to Gwadar is in and of itself a huge shot in the arm for an economy which is unable to get either domestic or foreign investment. Pakistan has for long pranced about its strategic geographical 230 location which it has considered its prime asset. Episodically, its geography has come in handy for world powers — for instance, for the U-2 flights from the Badaber base near Peshawar in the late 1950s, to fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and to assist in the war on terror in Afghanistan in the 2000s. While Pakistan did receive a handsome rent on all these occasions for allowing the use of its territory, it never really amounted to much in terms of Pakistan emerging as the crossroads of international trade and commerce. In short, it was a bridge to nowhere. The CPEC, for the first time, offers a tantalising opportunity for 226 Op. cit. 227 'Li Keqiang: Building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Falgship Projects', Ministry of Foreign Affairs of People's Republic of China, 08/11/2014, accessed at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/ytjhzzdrsrcldrfzshyjxghd/t1209089.shtml 228 Rana Jawad, 'Pakistan, China sign eight agreements, MoUs', The News International 06/07/2013, accessed on 06/07/2013 at http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-23908-Pakistan-China-sign-eight-agreements-MoUs 229 Op. cit. 230 Ikram Sehgal, 'Comments: Exploiting our Gold Coast', The News International 18/05/2006, see POT Pakistan Series Vol. XXXIV No. 115 pp 43-45 53
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Corridor Calculus

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