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Pakistan occupies an elevated role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and hosts its so-called flagship project, the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Existing literature has often interpreted this project from a geopolitical perspective, as a vehicle through which a rising China projects influence on a peripheral country and advances its own centrality in international affairs. While such motivations certainly played a major role in getting the project off the ground, they are not the sole determinant of its design, or the heated controversies it triggered within Pakistan. This paper seeks to capture both dimensions by analysing the development of CPEC, and the handling of the conflicts it sparked, through a lens of overlapping centre–periphery relations: one between China and Pakistan at the international level, and one between Islamabad and peripheral regions and groups within the country. I argue that this model best captures the pivotal position and resulting agency of national governments in shaping local BRI implementations. It also shows how the BRI is not a straight case of Chinese influence radiating outwards; rather, contestation by local actors in turn forces adaptations in Chinese foreign and security policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CPEC, a massive economic project under BRI, focuses on the socioeconomic and political dividends in Gilgit Baltistan. It is expected to create more than half a million jobs by creating Special Economic Zones in Gilgit, imparting a boom to the tourism industry and enlarging the scope of e-commerce. Hydropower development, technical expertise, and human resources--resulting from CPEC projects--are also likely to transform the socioeconomic dynamics of the region. This paper argues that the success of CPEC--considering the importance of connectivity for local markets--is likely to transform the region's socio-economic dynamics that will help promote economic and social inclusion of the people, mitigating their sense of deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructure has played an agential role in the securitisation of everyday life in the Karakoram high mountains of north Pakistan. Geopolitics bear heavily on this region where Pakistan shares borders with China, with whom it has aligned its foreign and security policy, and with India, with whom Pakistan remains embroiled in a long‐standing territorial dispute. Consequently, in the Karakoram, geopolitical anxieties have reflected inwards onto local populations through both security infrastructure and securitised infrastructure. In this postcolony frontier space, statecraft also frequently bypasses normative legal and administrative structures; such exceptions to normative law and administration have antecedents in colonial statecraft on the territorial margins of empire. This paper also argues that long cycles of military rule have allowed the military to acquire and project technocratic expertise, become custodians of state‐led development, and recently, to assume guardianship of, and to enter into joint financing with China on, construction projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xi Jinping is one of the strongest presidents Socialist China ever has seen. He revolutionized the country's foreign policy soon after he ascended to the President's Office. He revised China's foreign policy towards South Asia including Pakistan. During the 20th century, China adopted a principled policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of Pakistan. However, Jinping's rise brought an end to the said policy. This research paper focuses on exploring and analyzing the changes brought by Xi Jinping in the Foreign Policy of China towards Pakistan along with the pros and cons related to the changed foreign policy approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan and China despite of their diverse cultures, religions, languages, norms and traditions enjoying strong partnership at local, regional and international level. The democratic transition in Pakistan in 2008 had provoked to create many opportunities and challenges. In the study period Pakistan’s ties with China got strengthen in many fields and expanded relations in various fields including political, economic, military and cultural spheres. This new era had created many opportunities for both the states in the study period including CPEC, huge economic aid, Gwadar port operationalization, dams constructions, power generation houses establishment, support in different international organizations, help in gaining full membership in Shanghai Cooperation Organization and provided arms, ammunitions and helped Pakistan to minimize her depend on US and overcome US pressure. Likewise, both the countries also faced many challenges due to terrorism, regional militancy and power dynamics, political instability in Pakistan, US and Indian propaganda and counterbalance strategies, and targeting of Chinese and her interests in Pakistan. But the countries through mutual cooperation had successfully managed these challenges and did not let them to affect their relations. The main objective of this paper is to study the opportunities and Challenges of Pakistan-China Relations from 2008 to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional economic integration through highways, railways, pipelines and ports (dry and sea) leads towards interdependence which in turn develops stakes for regional states in each other stability and ultimately the goals of development, peace and prosperity are achieved. This particular paper aims to discuss the prospective role of CPEC in regional and intra-regional integration and its potential to positively influence the regional peace and prosperity. The focus is on the pattern of integration's structure which the CPEC offers and which has not been adequately analyzed in the literature so far. The paper argues that CPEC offers an open model of regional integration, increases regional security through interdependence and facilitates regional and global trade in contrast to close and tight regionalism where protectionist measures are adopted for non-member or non-regional states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]