Is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a replica of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port in South Asia?

Abstract

Due to China’s intervention on the global chessboard, the deviation in international politics has shifted from the West to the Global South region. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a strategic calculus that began in 2015 under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The corridor sounds like an economic deal for regional growth but seems trapped in the harsh geopolitics. The project hopes to boost Pakistan’s economy and simultaneously provide an alternative to the plight of the Malacca Strait for China. Many internal issues have enlarged the project’s focus, such as Baloch’s agitation against exploiting natural resources, lack of employment for locals, and increased terrorist attacks using “terrorist aliases” operating in Pakistan. The insecurity in South Asia has established new dimensions for the regional allies. Strategic investment of China under its BRI has severe regional implications for the embryonic security trends in South Asia. The “debt-trap diplomacy” in Hambantota’s port shows China’s vested interests in South Asia and Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Sri Lanka’s inability to repay its colossal loan has resulted in the 99-year lease with more than 70 per cent of the port’s control rights to a Chinese company. In 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) put forward its opinion on the lack of transparency in the BRI project financing. Similarly, the massive investment in the CEPC can ensure that China invades the Indian Ocean region and makes regional claims quickly and aggressively, posing a potential threat to India’s national security. As China’s BRI influence continues to expand, the project intends to counter India-US cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

The paper focuses on the comparative analysis of Hambantota Port and CPEC to understand China’s massive investment in Pakistan and the on-going economic crisis in Sri Lanka. The study uses explanatory research methods, in which the necessary data on the subject is obtained from secondary sources. The research also draws attention towards Gwadar Port while highlighting Hambantota’s debt-trap diplomacy against China’s geopolitical ambitions in the Global South under its Belt and Road initiative.