China-Pakistan Partnership: Reshaping security and Economic dynamic in South Asia

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17553435

Abstract

The increased involvement of China in Pakistan has redefined the South Asian strategy and economic environment. Located in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and inaugurated as the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the project connects the Xinjiang province in China to the Gwadar Port in Pakistan where Islamabad will gain much-needed infrastructure and energy growth and development. The foundation of this partnership is both neorealist and soft-power logic through intersecting economic interdependence and security cooperation to transform the state of affairs in the region. As it has been disclosed in the literature, CPEC empowers the Pakistani economy and benefits the Chinese geopolitical agenda by alleviating its Malacca Dilemma and extending its presence in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, it shifts the equilibrium against India, bringing new dimensions of deterrence and crisis management issues to an already nuclearized world. Empirical research points to the benefits of CPEC development and the losses of governance such as the problem of transparency, debt and unequal provincial benefits. Moreover, the position of China in the multilateral forums like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) makes it a potential stabilizing factor albeit due to structural rivalries that limit the result of cooperation. Together, the studies point out to the fact that the China-Pakistan relationship can be described as neither strictly economic nor strictly strategic, but as a sort of a hybrid structure in which Beijing and Islamabad seek to achieve security, connectivity and regional influence. This changing relationship is crucial to the measurement of future prospects of strategic stability and economic integration in South Asia.