China–Pakistan Economic Corridor and Its Impact on India

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a collection of infrastructure projects as part of China’s broad strategic design One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. Initially valued at $46 billion, the value of CPEC projects as of 2020 has mounted to worth $62 billion. The project is intended to further strengthen China’s strategic ties with Pakistan apart from the broader strategic aims of the former. On 20 April 2015, the then Chinese President, Xi Jinping, visited Pakistan to inaugurate this project. Both countries have since decided to establish the CPEC to connect Beijing’s Kashgar with strategically vital Pakistan’s Gwadar port through a network of roads, proposed railway tracks, an energy pipeline and fibre optic lines. The project is seen as an initiative to have enormous economic significance for both countries. For Beijing, the CPEC is a part of its grand strategic design, especially for the Indo-Pacific region, and for Islamabad, it is an opportunity to boost its development and investment indices, more importantly to boost its throttling economy. As the India factor plays a key role in binding China and Pakistan together and India is fighting a two-front war with these two adversaries, it is quite natural for New Delhi to be concerned about CPEC and respond accordingly. This article gives a general introduction about the CPEC and a theoretical understanding, followed by an attempt to answer such questions as what CPEC means for China and Pakistan and its prospects and challenges. Finally, this article attempts to analyse the impact of CPEC on India and its response. The study has adopted the qualitative method of inquiry by using the historical and analytical approach.