Regional integration is the hallmark of collective progress. The marshal plan by the US for post-War Europe enabled the entire region to progress collectively. For the United States, the Marshall Plan provided markets for American goods, created reliable trading partners, and supported the development of stable democratic governments in Western Europe. Since then, the discipline of international relations has developed a distinct theoretical framework, namely ‘regional integration theory’. The subset of RIT includes intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism. Both approaches assume inter-state cooperation for the collective good. However, intergovernmentalists think that governments have to surrender some powers to a supra-organization which, sometimes, weakens their sovereignty. However, neofunctionalists think that governments are empowered to control the integration process.
Going by these two approaches of integration, China has developed its distinct model of regional cooperation in the shape of the Belt and Road Initiative. Contrary to Eurocentric approaches to regional integration, the Chinese scholars of IR have developed concepts like relational management, relational governance, and relational system. Relational concepts tend to briefly highlight that BRI is meant to improve inter-state relations without any political dominance and facilitate the states to improve their infrastructures and development projects.
The mainstream theories of international relations take the BRI differently. Realists consider BRI as China’s grand strategy to take advantage of its economic power to draw neighboring countries into its orbit. On the other hand, liberalists think that BRI is still aligned with rule-based world order and is more inclusive in its approach. The third perspective is from constructivists who argue that President Xi’s visions, such as the “China Dream” and “Community of Shared Future for Mankind,” are more important factors to be examined to understand the future of BRI. The international perception of BRI is the byproduct of the constructivist theory of international relations.
We will examine how perception is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed in Pakistan with regard to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of BRI. As the constructivists argue that ‘reality is what you make out of it,” the entire perception domain is steered through the constructivist approach. The best case study to understand the international perception of CPEC is the reporting and content production of international media. A large part of Western media reporting is influenced by intergovernmentalist underpinnings of state influence, intervention, and weakening sovereignty.
CPEC is a landmark Chinese investment project in Pakistan aimed at enhancing regional connectivity & trade through a network of transportation, energy, and industrial infrastructure. It has the potential to create millions of jobs and reduce poverty. However, the reporting of international media presents the CPEC as a ‘debt trap,’ ‘cliental state relationship,’ ‘excluding the smaller provinces,’ and most of all, a ‘security-driven project.’ These insinuations in international media reporting are not only biased but also exaggerated in their analyses. Moreover, reporting by international media in regional language is aimed at spreading disinformation among the local communities, i.e., in Gilgit Baltistan and Balochistan, shaping a bad image of CPEC as a foreign entity that will usurp the resources of local communities and benefit a partial segment of Pakistani society.
However, the dividends of CPEC and the figures for the last five years tell a different story. According to some estimates, CPEC will link Pakistan with 60 countries worldwide. Up to May 2023, CPEC has created 192,000 jobs, 6,000MW of power supply, 510km of highway, and 886km of transmission line. According to Gwadar Pro, a website focusing on CPEC, the project will create 2.3 million jobs in Pakistan by 2030. Under CPEC, Pakistan and China have started projects for the production of 17045 Megawatt of electricity.
Gwadar Port is the fulcrum of CPEC. It has the ability to host 200,000 DWT ships, having 120 berths and a handling capacity of 400 million tons of cargo per year by 2045. The people of Gwadar are the main stakeholder. The export initiative from Gwadar Port begins with the export of Gold and Copper from the Reko Diq mine, giving a socio-economic boost in Pakistan and the region. Moreover, aquaculture production has immense potential in Balochistan. Although fishery has less than one percent share of the total GDP of Pakistan, the marine fishery in the Gwadar region is likely to change aquaculture in Pakistan. The introduction of modern fishery technologies at Gwadar port will enable the local fishermen to increase production potential ten times in the next five years.
CPEC will reduce provincial disparities by creating economic opportunities in smaller provinces. Mega projects in Balochistan and KPK include Gwadar Port, Gwadar International Airport, Gwadar East-Bay Expressway, Hub Power Plant, Havelian Dry Port, Rashakai SEZ, Peshawar-Karachi Motorway, ML-1, and Karakoram Highway up-gradation. The structural outlook of CPEC is meant to benefit smaller provinces as much of the focus of the project is infrastructural developments in Balochistan. This will not only increase inter-provincial coordination but also create more job opportunities for the locals of smaller provinces.
At the national level, the Chinese way of inter-state cooperation is politically more viable than the Western mode of interaction. China doesn’t tend to intervene in the socio-political issues of states. It focuses on the infrastructural developments in other states where there are rare chances of violation of state sovereignty. Chinese concepts like relational management, relational governance, and relational system are more comprehensive and accommodating to the national sensitivities of decision-makers in Pakistan as they are different from the Western mode of intervention in the socio-political affairs of a state. Therefore, CPEC and other Chinese ventures in Pakistan are more attractive as compared to IMF program and USAID.
