China and Pakistan have cultivated an exemplary and diversified friendship over seven decades. Despite multiple challenges, the leadership and people of both countries have steadfastly supported each other, earning the relationship the description of “Iron Brothers”. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the landmark expression of this mutually beneficial and multidimensional cooperation. At a time when Pakistan faces serious economic, security and social challenges, CPEC offers an important opportunity to strengthen economic stability, improve connectivity and integrate Pakistan more closely with regional and global markets.

CPEC is one of the major components of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is widely viewed as a modern revival of the ancient Silk Routes. For nearly three millennia, these routes connected Eurasia through trade while facilitating the exchange of culture, knowledge, languages and beliefs. The BRI seeks to revive this connectivity through infrastructure, trade, investment and people-to-people cooperation. CPEC, therefore, has significance beyond Pakistan-China relations and has the potential to connect Pakistan with wider regional economic networks.

China’s own development experience provides important context. After opening to the world in the 1980s, China initially concentrated development on its coastal regions. However, the resulting disparity between the coastal and western and interior regions became a major concern. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping emphasized the need to overcome regional inequality, while President Jiang Zemin subsequently introduced the “Great Western Development” strategy in 1999. These efforts contributed to a broader........

© Pakistan Observer