Abstract
The CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) is a mega economic project approved by the joint efforts of
Pakistan and China in 2015. The project entails, (initially $46 billion) and now $ 62 billion and is expected that it
would raise to almost $100 billion before its long-term project could be completed as far as by 2030. The projects
consist of early harvest projects, the majority of which have been completed, medium-term project, which are to be
completed by 2015 and long-term projects which are to be completed by 2030. The project is the part and parcel of
China-led (OBOR) One Built One Road initiative, which is aimed to connect the Chinese economy to the rest of the
world through the series of various roads, highways and motorways network and by reviving the old Silk road.
CPEC as the part of OBOR would connect, at large, both countries and the two restive western provinces of both
countries. The project has been dubbed as the game changer and will bring a win-win situation for both countries in
terms of economic development and strategic importance. The initiation of CPEC shows Chinese resolves to invest
in Pakistan, in the time when other countries are pulling out of the country for their supposed claims fragile security
situations in the country. But before the project could be completed, many reservations have been voiced, both at the
international and national levels. Where on one hand if some have dubbed it as the connector factor in the age of
globalization at the international level, then on another hand the project has been branded as the initiative showing
the rising power of China and through which china aspires to become a world power by aligning countries through
entrapping them through debt diplomacy. Similarly, at the domestic level many regional parties, Nationalist
politicians and even some economists have raised their reservations. Some sections of people have also gone to an
extent to call CPEC as the China Punjab corridor based on their claim of CPEC benefiting only the province of
Punjab. Therefore, this study aimed to highlight those who consider it as the connector factor and divider factor
both at the international and domestic level with their respective arguments.
Mr.Hafeez Ullah Khan, Dr. Ijaz Khalid, Syed Ali Shah. (2018) The CPEC: Connector or Divider, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 55, Issue 2.
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