US aims to subvert CPEC

08/08/2023 CEN_net BRI, BRICS, & Global South~, Geopolitics & Multipolarity~ 0

BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE

US seeks to destabilize China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Imran Khan jailed.

Pakistan is home to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor — a core node of the Beijing-led Belt & Road Initiative that Washington is keen to destabilize.

When he was Pakistan’s leader, Imran Khan was considered by the US as too friendly towards Russia and China. So Washington’s color revolutionists got to work.

Thomas Polin

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project of the BRI, aiming to connect Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan to China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Pakistan emerged as a key participant in the BRI from the beginning. The historical relationship between China and Pakistan has been characterized by political, economic, and military cooperation.

Pakistan’s geopolitical location and its proximity to key regional players make it a crucial player in regional dynamics.

The infrastructure projects under CPEC have already begun to show their potential to address Pakistan’s long-standing infrastructure deficiencies and to transform Pakistan’s transportation networks.

Also, energy security is a critical consideration for Pakistan, as it is for all developing countries. Pakistan has faced a severe energy crisis, and the BRI has enhanced the country’s opportunities for meeting its energy needs and diversifying its energy mix.

Hence BRI projects in the energy sector have focused on increasing power generation and increasingly on the expansion of renewable energy sources.

Indeed, on 1 August 2023 the Deccan Herald reported that current Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng marked the tenth anniversary of CPEC and signed six deals under a new model to speed up the second phase of the $60 billion CPEC projects.

Whether US schemes to undermine the BRI and CPEC, as part of its broader policy of “containment” of China, will bear fruit in the long term remains doubtful.

And as Thomas Hon Wing Polin points out in the attached shared post, Pakistan’s overthrown Prime Minister Imran Khan remains the country’s most popular leader, and the US plans to keep a “subservient regime” in power may well fail.

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