The US financial news service Bloomberg published (March 2) a report that there had been little progress on the BRI or the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It said the CPEC originally called for a seaport, roads, railways, pipelines, dozens of factories and the largest airport in Pakistan. But, almost seven years after the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was established, there’s little evidence of that vision being realised. The site of the new airport, which was supposed to have been completed with Chinese funding more than three years ago, is a fenced-off area of scrub and dun-colored sand. Specks of mica in the dirt are the only things that glitter. The factories have yet to materialise on a stretch of beach along the bay south of the airport. And traffic at Gwadar’s tiny, three-berth port is sparse. It said according to government statements less than one-third of announced CPEC projects have been completed, totaling about $19 billion. Pakistan bears much of the blame. It has repeatedly missed construction targets as it ran out of money; it got a $6 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund last year, the country’s 13th since the late 1980s. Two successive prime ministers have been jailed on corruption charges. And the Baloch Liberation Army’s desire for a separate homeland in Balochistan province, where Gwadar is located, has made life there uneasy. In May 2019, militants stormed the city’s only luxury hotel, shooting up the white-marbled lobby and killing five people. But setbacks in Gwadar point to larger problems along the Belt and Road. China is scaling back its ambitions, not just in Pakistan but around the world. Its economic growth has slowed to the lowest rate in three decades, inflation is rising and the country has been feeling the effects of a trade war with the U.S. The picture is getting even darker as a coronavirus epidemic that originated in central China threatens to cause further delays and cutbacks. Jonathan Hillman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, was quoted as saying “The biggest constraint for China now is its own economy.”
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