CPEC : Pakistan’s Nemesis
By Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Veteran Special Forces
(an old article published earlier in sachikhabar.com )
When India refused to participate in the much hyped OBOR initiative of China, rest of the World thought that it was because of political rivalry and due to the new GREAT GAME underway in Asia. Whereas the primary reason was that of Sovereignty and the secondary reason that of sound business practice.
No wonder India point blank refused to be party to the Chinese financed China Pakistan Economic Corridor because it was firstly passing through Indian territory of Gilgit-Baltistan (presently under illegal occupation of Pakistan) and secondly the terms & conditions of Chinese financing were totally askew.
As per the plan announced in 2008 for the CPEC, starting from kashgar in China to Gwadar on the Baluchistan Coast, the investment being made would be twice of any Foreign investment made in Pakistan up to 2008.
The Pakistani thinking being anti India all the time, they were so happy to see the military-political angle of the CPEC deal that in their enthusiasm the Government of Pakistan and their economic experts simply failed to read the fine print of the deal.
They even failed in their basic mathematics of interest calculation on the deal. By the time the project gets completed in next 15 years their roughly Rs 2000000 Crore economy would be paying back around 400000 crores to the Chinese……an impossible burden to be borne by the country.
When the Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pakistan in April 2015, he showered the Country with gifts which glittered but every thing which glitters is not gold. Xi announced a magnificent $46 billion CPEC project fully paid for by the Chinese, and up to 50% more to come later on.
The grand plan announced that it was a mega-project that covered energy, infrastructure projects designed to massively raise Pakistan’s economic growth to dizzy heights.
Pakistan as a nation were taken in by the glittering development of Gwadar Port, the infrastructure projects and the majestic roads.
What they failed to see that Gwadar and the access to it was being developed for geostrategic and economic benefit mainly to China and hardly if any to Pakistan. They also failed to notice that sooner than later a security and fibre optics communication grid fully controlled by China would be laid to cover entire Pakistan.
This would enable the Chinese to project their own media and impose it on Pakistan together with their propaganda. It will also help in establishing a government controlled monitoring and surveillance grid across the country.
The CPEC is already causing problems in Baluchistan and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province as they have become more aware of the Chinese designs. In the name of security Pakistan Army has already raised two special security divisions to guard the Chinese labour deployed in Gwadar and along the CPEC.
This expenditure is being borne not by China but Pakistan. As announced in Pakistan National Assembly that Chinese firms have already been given a number of tax concessions across the entire CPEC projects as incentive for working in Baluchistan.
The Chinese will also operate special exclusive economic zones having specific conditions for building their infrastructure and projects with only Chinese employees.
When the Chinese speak of joint efforts against terrorists the Chinese think of their own Muslim Uyghurs and not protection of Pakistan.
Yet another aspect of the project which by now the people in Gilgit-Baltistan, Baluchistan and even Khyber region have realised that China is slowly taking control of Pakistan’s agriculture.
This is being done not to feed Pakistani people but for feeding the Chinese labour force and the population of Xinjiang. Thousands of acres of agricultural land will be leased out to Chinese companies for agricultural projects.
Though the overt plan is to provide assistance in developing scientific techniques in agriculture like hybrid varieties and precision irrigation including livestock breeding.
Thus the sudden news of Pakistan withdrawal from the 15 year long-stalled Bhasha-Diamer Dam a part of CPEC came as a shock to most of Pakistan. World Bank and the ADB had earlier already refused to fund this project without a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from India.
All this time Pakistan was quite sure that their Chinese friend would agree to help. Initially Beijing agreed to get this project hanging for over a decade to take off. However the willy Chinese asked for security guarantees and raised issues of ownership and maintenance costs.
This time it seems someone calculated the costs and it became unacceptable to Pakistan. This perhaps is the first official doubt in Pakistan Government against CPEC. Though a few Pakistani economists had brought out all these things long ago. So let’s see if Pakistan manages to come out of the Dragons embrace or ends up in its belly.
