China's 'Belt and Road' Plan in Pakistan Takes a Military Turn
When President Trump started the new year by suspending billions of dollars of security aid to Pakistan, one theory was that it would scare the Pakistani military into cooperating better with its American allies.
The reality was that Pakistan already had a replacement sponsor lined up.
Just two weeks later, the Pakistani Air Force and Chinese officials were putting the final touches on a secret proposal to expand Pakistan's building of Chinese military jets, weaponry and other hardware. The confidential plan, reviewed by The New York Times, would also deepen the cooperation between China and Pakistan in space, a frontier the Pentagon recently said Beijing was trying to militarize after decades of playing catch-up.
All those military projects were designated as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, a $1 trillion chain of infrastructure development programs stretching across some 70 countries, built and financed by Beijing.
Chinese officials have repeatedly said the Belt and Road is purely an economic project with peaceful intent. But with its plan for Pakistan, China is for the first time explicitly tying a Belt and Road proposal to its military ambitions — and confirming the concerns of a host of nations who suspect the infrastructure initiative is really about helping China project armed might.
Related: China's Xi Jinping Negotiates $46bn Superhighway to Pakistan
China Plans $503 Billion Investment in High-Speed Rail by 2020
Chinese President Xi Jinping Pledges $124 Billion for One Belt, One Road Initiative
Gunmen Attack Chinese Consulate in Pakistan
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China intends to invest $46 billion in infrastructure links to Pakistan:
The focus of spending is on building a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the long-time allies. They will run some 3,000km (1,865 miles) from Gwadar in Pakistan to China's western Xinjiang region.
The projects will give China direct access to the Indian Ocean and beyond. This marks a major advance in China's plans to boost its economic influence in Central and South Asia, correspondents say, and far exceeds US spending in Pakistan.
[...] Some $15.5bn worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will come online by 2017 and add 10,400 megawatts of energy to Pakistan's national grid, according to officials. A $44m optical fibre cable between the two countries is also due to be built.
The Great Game lives. Different players, same game. Equally large implications. Diplomacy game geeks, awake! Who are the players, and what's the play?
According to a report at Bloomberg , China plans a major investment in high-speed rail over the next five years: $503 Billion:
China plans to spend 3.5 trillion yuan ($503 billion) to expand its railway system by 2020 as it turns to investments in infrastructure to bolster growth and improve connectivity across the country.
The high-speed rail network will span more than 30,000 kilometers (18,650 miles) under the proposal, according to details released at a State Council Information Office briefing in Beijing Thursday. The distance, about 6.5 times the length of a road trip between New York and Los Angeles, will cover 80 percent of major cities in China.
The plan will see high-speed rail lines across the country expand by more than half over a five-year period, a boon to Chinese suppliers of rolling stock such as CRRC Corp. and rail construction companies including China Railway Construction Corp. and China Railway Group Ltd. Earlier this year, China turned to a private company for first time to operate an inter-city rail service on the mainland, part of President Xi Jinping's push to modernize the nation's transport network amid slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.
China will also add 3,000 kilometers to its urban rail transit system under the plan released Thursday.
At the end of 2015, China had 121,000 kilometers of railway lines, including 19,000 kilometers of high-speed tracks, according to a transportation white paper issued Thursday. The U.S. had 228,218 kilometers of rail lines as of 2014, according to latest available data from the World Bank.
The Chinese government will invite private investment to participate in funding intercity and regional rail lines, Yang Yudong, administrator of the National Railway Administration, said at the briefing.
Compare that to what it would cost, and how long it would take, to create the same high-speed rail links between 80% of major cities in the USA. I suspect it would be considered a miracle if half the cases would make it out of the courts in five years. Think of the advancements in manufacturing that can arise when "here" and "there" are "nearby" instead of "far away".
China's President has pledged $124 billion for a new "Silk Road" connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe:
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday urged major multilateral institutions to join his new Belt and Road Initiative, stressing the importance of rejecting protectionism in seeking global economic growth.
Addressing other world leaders at a summit on the initiative in Beijing, Xi said it was necessary to coordinate policies with the development goals of institutions including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ASEAN, African Union and the European Union.
Xi pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his new Silk Road which aims to bolster China's global leadership ambitions by expanding links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond, as U.S. President Donald Trump promotes "America First".
No one is totally sure. At the most basic level, One Belt, One Road (OBOR) is a collection of interlinking trade deals and infrastructure projects throughout Eurasia and the Pacific, but the definition of what exactly qualifies as an OBOR project or which countries are even involved in the initiative is incredibly fuzzy. "It means everything and it means nothing at the same time," said Christopher Balding, a professor of economics at Peking University. [...] According to Chinese state media, some $1 trillion has already been invested in OBOR, with another several trillion due to be invested over the next decade.
Fuzzier story at CNN. More at Wikipedia.
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China Plans $503 Billion Investment in High-Speed Rail by 2020
Karachi attack: China consulate attack leaves four dead
Gunmen have killed at least four people in an attack on the Chinese consulate in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Gunshots were heard at about 09:30 local time (04:30 GMT) outside the consulate in the upmarket Clifton area. Police shot dead three attackers.
Separatist militants who oppose Chinese investment projects in western Pakistan say they carried out the attack. [...] All the staff inside the consulate are safe, China said. The government condemned the attack on its mission and the foreign ministry in Beijing called for extra measures to protect Chinese citizens in Pakistan. "At the same time we mourn the deaths of the Pakistani police and think of their families at this time," a spokesman said.
[...] A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, said it had carried out the attack. It is one of a number of separatist groups operating in the province, which has seen a long-running nationalist insurgency. "We have been seeing the Chinese as an oppressor, along with Pakistani forces," a spokesman for the group told the AFP news agency.
Over the years, construction projects and Chinese workers in Balochistan have been repeatedly targeted by militants. Most recently, a suicide bombing in August injured a number of Chinese engineers. So far, none of the incidents has been large enough in scale to really threaten the viability of Chinese investment in the country. But this is one of the most prominent attacks to date.
Italy joins China's New Silk Road project
Italy has become the first developed economy to sign up to China's global investment programme which has raised concerns among Italy's Western allies.
A total of 29 deals amounting to €2.5bn ($2.8bn) were signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Rome. The project is seen as a new Silk Road which, just like the ancient trade route, aims to link China to Europe. Italy's European Union allies and the United States have expressed concern at China's growing influence.
The new Silk Road has another name - the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - and it involves a wave of Chinese funding for major infrastructure projects around the world, in a bid to speed Chinese goods to markets further afield. Critics see it as also representing a bold bid for geo-political and strategic influence.
Also at Bloomberg and The Washington Post.
Related: China's Xi Jinping Negotiates $46bn Superhighway to Pakistan
China Plans $503 Billion Investment in High-Speed Rail by 2020
Chinese President Xi Jinping Pledges $124 Billion for One Belt, One Road Initiative
China's $1 Trillion Belt and Road Project Includes Military Cooperation With Pakistan
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:50PM (10 children)
We live in blissful isolation, surrounded by a big moat, and all of two countries that don't even have a football team...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Informative) by zocalo on Thursday December 27 2018, @06:53PM (8 children)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @04:53AM
Just in reply to your tag, circumcision can be very painful and can kill babies. In some cases in Africa where it is done to adolescents some boys don't survival.
For those who have no say in it spending your life without a foreskin can really screw up sex.
Mine was removed when I was a baby. It really has made sex difficult.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday December 28 2018, @07:13AM (6 children)
It's actually a damn scary alliance, a high-tech superpower allied with and providing weapons to a radical crazy Indian (or Indo-Aryan) nation. It's not something you'd want if you're looking for stability in the region, and a great way for China to fight its proxy wars with India. And all of that triad are nuclear armed...
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Friday December 28 2018, @08:37AM (4 children)
What the fuck is Indo-Aryan? Are we reading Nazi literature again? Sorry dude, your racism is showing tuck it in.
You could have used the right work - a radical crazy Muslim nation - armed by the USA [wikipedia.org] to displace pluralist democracy of India.
PS: Don't quote Wikipedia.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday December 29 2018, @09:08AM (3 children)
That's the dominant ethnic group in Pakistan. Sorry dude, your ignorance or SJW-ism is showing... oh, sorry, they're the same thing aren't they.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Saturday December 29 2018, @09:32AM (2 children)
First of all 'they' are called Pakistani and your itch to bring race (you are an ignorant idiot who is trying to get away by using "ethnicity" to refer to race) is why you are being called a racist. The major ethnicity in Pakistan is Punjabi, and even there the dominant people think they are the descendants of Gengiz Khan and Ghauri [wikipedia.org].
If I was an SJW I would be demanding your death or at least a ban. You are free to talk and I am free to call you out for the little racist uneducated moron that you are. Unless you are actually not for freedom of speech and you just want to shut me up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @07:48PM (1 child)
i think the op was just trying to differentiate Indians and Pakistanis by ethnic group. you're one of these stupid bitches who thinks it's evil just to identify people by race/ethnicity and the word Aryan is banned. fuck you,
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Sunday December 30 2018, @04:37PM
And what purpose was solved by pointing out a race that clubs two enemies together into one group? Your stupidity, which I just wish was limited to people with your stature, is so rampant in the USA... there is a reason why everyone all over the world calls Americans uneducated ignorant. It is exactly THIS kind of moronic belligerent love of racial thinking that got you in the mess you are dealing with right now. Just read up on Ghauri - Pakistanis have named a missile after him - a missile that was developed with the help of North Koreans. A missile that has been further developed to carry nuclear bombs developed with the help of Chinese - all under the nose of USA because Americans didn't think that the rest of the world doesn't identify or work upon these "ethnic" boundaries that you came up with.
TL;DR: You point out a race, you are the definition of racist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @08:37PM
Yeah the USA supporting and providing weapons to Afghanistan/Pakistan/etc hasn't really been such a good thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @02:33AM
There is an easy way around that. If the target nation is stupid enough. Buy land in your enemies homeland. Eventually you can literally own them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @06:02PM (9 children)
China has always been allied with Pakistan. The area is restive, and it also provides access to the western Indian ocean.
I would be interested to know to what degree the shared alliance with Pakistan against Russia-leaning India, while China had emancipated itself from Russia, drove the US to "abandon" the Taiwanese back in the 1970s. My civics book from 1968 still said that Conmunist China was so unpalatable to the American spirit, that we would never have relations with them. And then the next Republican president shook hands with Mao.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday December 27 2018, @07:59PM (1 child)
They have a common border somewhere, whose exact demarkation they both dispute.
That lead India to say when they tested an ICBM three years ago or so that "it could hit Beijing".
I expect that message was not lost on the Communist Central Committee.
The Soviets and China used heavy armor from time to time to move their common border in Mongolia hither and yon. The Soviets and the PRC were therefore "Fellow Travelers": the same destination, but otherwise they are not friends.
Similarly with Vietnam and China: the PRC invaded Vietnam shortly after the North took the South in 1975. I expect China's been trying to take Vietnam since the dawn of humanity.
One does not simply invade North Vietnam.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday December 28 2018, @12:40AM
That had to be a direct threat. The indians can put fairly large satellites in orbit. Anyone with half a brain knows they can hit anywhere on the bloody planet if they feel like it.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:17PM (6 children)
Pakistan was one of the first nations to recognize the PRC and the relationship has always been close:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China–Pakistan_relations [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:09PM
So was India. Those were the days when the term 'third world' was being coined by J L Nehru [wikipedia.org] for countries unwilling to participate in cold-war and pick either side. Unfortunately, there was a border dispute between China and India (thanks to the British) and they had a war [wikipedia.org], which didn't really change anything.* There was a border dispute between Pakistan and India too (thank the British for that too, thank you) and Pakistan and China had that one too. Pakistan smartly decided to simply hand-over that land to China because it was populated by non-Muslim population anyway.
Pakistan and China have a thicker relationship than Pakistan and USA, one thickened by supplying nuclear technology. Pakistan is an integral part of China's string of pearl [wikipedia.org] strategy.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:57PM (4 children)
I'm puzzled, I thought that China was working hard to eradicate Islam in their western provinces (re-education camps, religious leaders disappearing, etc)? But just south of there is Pakistan (an Islamic state) and the two are allies? How does this work in the long term?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @01:06AM
From what I guess, the authoritarians in control are cool with it, while insurgent groups are organizing terrorist attacks in Pakistan on Chinese and government targets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @05:02AM
No doubt China will get around to eradicating them eventually. One step at a time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @04:22PM
The Chinese don't give a rats arse about what happens within other countries. Only within their own territories.
They're not interested in making the rest of the world conform to them.
All the Chinese people I know (including family) are actually very big on the concept of obeying a foreign country's laws when in that country. This is actually "The Big TIff" that's happening betwen US + Chinese presidents. US wants to remain with special rules for them, which goes against the philosophy that I mentioned.
Yes there are plenty of exceptions - there are a billion Chines nationals after all - but this is something that many of my language students have mentioned...they were taught this philosophy at school. They can get highly embarrassed at "The dumbass Chinese tourist" syndrome, whereas a Westerner would double down and defend the bad behaviour.
So that's why they don't care about Islam in other countries..."Not Our Problem".
Get to know some Chinese nationals. I think you would be pleasantly surprised at their tolerance of others. Chinese neighbours are great, they never bitch about your behaviour...because that's your territory, not theirs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @08:32AM
America is in alliance with Saudis. Saudis and Israelis are closet crypto allies.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday December 27 2018, @06:19PM (3 children)
This seem to be right out of the American diplomacy playbook, you seriously didn't think all the countries that buy American military hardware do it cause they need it, want it or that it's "the best"? It's more of a protection racket really.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday December 28 2018, @03:52PM
Hmm.. the JSF "Joint Strike Fighter" [wikipedia.org] comes to mind..
Later renamed to F-35 [wikipedia.org] (A bit like Windscale → Sellafield, or Monsanto → Bayer I presume).
Trumpland's NATO allies are supposed to buy [wikipedia.org] them. Or else?
And, it's closed source: from Wiki:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28 2018, @09:02PM (1 child)
Actually China's Belt & Road stuff seems slightly more positive than what the US does.
China is lending countries money and building ports and infra for them.
Stuff could go wrong and the ROI could be crap but China shares the risk. For example with Sri Lanka stuff didn't go well. So 70% of the port was leased and port operations were handed over to China for 99 years. China gets to control stuff for 99 years, stuff that they spent a lot of money to build. Sri Lanka gets that stuff after 99 years while using part of the port. And how much money did Sri Lanka spend for that?
China isn't trying to force Pakistan, Sri Lanka or others to sell their banks and other companies to China. Or "harmonize" their laws (100+ year copyrights etc).
It's not all great since 99 years is a long time but Sri Lanka might actually have something at the end of it if they don't screw up their own country. In contrast the US approach tends to involve screwing up countries as part of the plan...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 29 2018, @12:31PM
At least somebody around here knows what they are talking about. Unsurprisingly it's an AC.