Pakistan’s stance on militants alienated the US. Is China next?

Islamabad’s failure to confront domestic terrorism has put China in ‘a watchful mood’ regarding its Belt and Road investment plans

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A Pakistani soldier patrols the Gwadar port, some 700km west of Karachi. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:30pm, 21 Jan 2018Updated: 2:23pm, 21 Jan 2018

Self-serving politics threaten not only to strain Pakistan’s relations with the United States, but heighten tensions in the geostrategic region of Balochistan, a vital node in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative that has been earmarked as home for China’s second foreign military base.

Labourers work at a Belt and Road Initiative site in Pakistan. Photo: AP

Pakistan’s short-sighted political battles are being fought at a time of worsening relations with the US over alleged Pakistani support of militants and concern that the US may withdraw from the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran. This potentially creates a dilemma for China, which is heavily invested in Pakistan with more than US$50 billion committed to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a collection of infrastructure projects.

Beijing may freeze further CPEC-related investment until the country’s domestic politics stabilise. So far, China is believed to have invested US$29 billion of its committed US$56 billion.

“Political events in Pakistan have sent China in a watchful mood … I am concerned if we continue to throw surprises to the outside world, then anyone can be forced to rethink their economic investments,” Pakistan’s chief CPEC negotiator, Ahsan Iqbal, told Pakistani daily The News.

Iqbal spoke after the Pakistani military seemingly backed a successful effort to force the resignation of Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, the chief minister of Balochistan, the troubled region that is core to CPEC and contains its crown jewel, the deep-sea port of Gwadar. The removal of Zehri, a member of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), was part of an effort to prevent the PML-N from returning to power in elections scheduled for July.

Zehri’s resignation signalled an end of efforts to drive a wedge between various nationalist Baloch insurgent groups and weaken Islamic militants that have wreaked havoc in Balochistan with attacks on Chinese, Pakistani and Shiite targets.