As it passes through Kashmir, a region over which India and Pakistan have territorial disputes, some Western scholars have said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – an exemplar project under the Belt and Road Initiative – will change India and Pakistan’s sovereignty requests over the territory.
Liu Yushu, researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, said the CPEC has nothing to do with the territorial dispute, in an article at www.crntt.com.
Starting from Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China and ending at Pakistan's Gwadar Port on the Indian Ocean, the CPEC was first proposed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during his visit to Pakistan in May 2013. Part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, the trade corridor includes construction of roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines and fiber optic channels, Liu wrote.
In developing it, both countries have always stuck to the principle of equality and mutual benefit and centered it on interconnectivity-oriented economic development, Liu said. It also witnessed substantial progress by 2018; 22 projects, for example, were either under construction or are complete, netting nearly US$19 billion-worth investments and creating 70,000 jobs for Pakistan.
By making the CPEC pass through the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir, China and Pakistan want to boost local economic development. Yet China will not intervene in the sovereignty issues over Kashmir, which will ultimately be determined by Pakistan and India on their own, Liu said. The dispute is a long-term, historical problem between them, and has nothing to do with the corridor’s development, he added.
And the Chinese government has stressed on multiple occasions that no third party is targeted while developing the corridor, Liu wrote. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, for example, has reiterated that China’s cooperation with Pakistan under the corridor framework will not change China’s stance over related issues.
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