China intends to establish the rail link from Gwadar to Kashgar, costing $58 billion

The envisioned China railroad project will enable it to world domination and mitigate dependence on west-dominated routes for trade. 

By Shehzad Baloch

Britain’s Empire began its subcontinent rule in 1757, lasting until 1947. It ruled for around 200 years in this region. During the

British era, the imperialist power ruthlessly crushed each aroused movement and rebellion. 

After World War II, fought from 1939 to 1945, the British Empire was disabled to maintain its colonies globally because of economic and political damages. Consequently, Britain withdrew from the subcontinent in 1947 and left behind countries under its favored regimes. 

Balochistan, a princely state, was given independence for a short period, but through the Great Game, Britain merged it into Pakistan by force. The mentioned Great Game was designed to counter the socialist bloc vanguard by the United Socialists States of Russia. 

The signs, even today, can be seen in other former British colonies, including in Balochistan. The laid railway track in Balochistan is a visible sign of the British era that shows that big powers retreat through great powers conflict, but minor, regional, and low-scale movements cannot budge them. Britain, warring with the Germans, lost its strength. Otherwise, regional campaigns in the subcontinent and others could not repulse it from the occupation.

After the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine war, China has become more augmented in world politics and started working like a Godfather with regional stakeholders. 

Recently, through mediations, China has reinstalled relations between antagonists Iran and Saudi Arabia countries. This Chinese move reshaped the dynamics of world politics, and globally manipulating powers spheres need clarification about how to uphold their hegemony in other regions, including the Subcontinent and Central Asia, where the area of Balochistan is also situated.

On April 25, 2023, Pakistan’s Chief of the Army, General Asim Munir, was in China on a four-day official visit where he held meetings with the leadership of the Communist Party of China to discuss military cooperation between the two countries.

During the Pakistani Army Chief’s visit, the Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post on April 27, 2023, reported that China had proposed its most expensive Belt and Road Initiative to date with a $58 billion railway system that would connect Pakistan to western China in a move to reduce Western trade dependence further.

The $57.7 billion plan was reviewed by analysts from the state-owned China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Company Limited, which has determined that despite its hefty price tag, the investment is worth it, reported the South China Morning Post.

The 1,860-mile rail system will connect Pakistan’s port of Gwadar to the Chinese city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and potentially reshape trade and geopolitics, according to the proposal’s review board.

“The government and financial institutions should provide strong support, increase coordination and collaboration among relevant domestic departments, strive for the injection of support funds, and provide strong policy support and guarantees for the construction of this project,” the Chinese team of analysts said in a report published earlier this month in the Chinese journal, Railway Transport, and Economy.

The latest rail system to get the green light in China will connect the world’s top manufacturer with the Arabian Sea, opening it up to more direct trade routes.

It is also expected to encourage other train systems that could connect China to Turkey and Iran – significantly opening up direct access to the regions, reported the South China Morning Post.

The trade routes are just one component of Beijing’s broader Belt and Road Initiative that looks to solidify China as a world superpower and encourage global domination in the trade sector.

The initiative is also looking to shift focus away from historical trade routes dominated by Western nations on improving China’s economic goals better and encouraging a “multipolar world” to diminish Western power – a move that top autocratic countries like Russia and Iran have also been eager to encourage as geopolitical tensions with the West continue to escalate.

In the meantime, small sections, like Baloch groups, are unwilling to accept China in their region for several reasons. But China, through its debt trap program, takes countries into its debt network and then occupies their vital positions. It has been done in Tajikistan and occupied its most fertile region, the ‘Baagh.’ 

In Sri Lanka, China has taken into custody the port. Zambia’s airport has been overtaken, and Kyzikistan happened the same.

In Pakistan, the country is run mainly by the army, and Chinese authorities appease this organization and deal directly with this. This under-broached project also surfaced during the visit of Army Chief General Asim Munir. Already, the Sendak is a copper and gold project, and Gwadar deep sea port has been given to China, and from them, it is earning a heavy amount but giving a slight portion to army officials as a kitty. In contrast, Balochistan is not given from its mineral and coastal resources. 

In these settings, the dissent voices, even armed organizations, have emerged to counter these injustices, but these could not invite the world powers attention because of the lack of resources and strength. 

Baloch insurgent organizations occasionally carried out attacks against the Chinese, intentionally to deter them from their resources and land. However, due to heavy security fortification by the state of Pakistan, the Baloch resisting forces failed to stop exploitations. 

Even knowing about the dissents, the Chinese continue their operations in the Sendak project and Gwadar deep sea port due to a significant margin of profit in the project. Most noticeably, the corrupt system of the country and the influence of small sections, like army rule, suit China to deal with them, simultaneously looting the resources on a large scale and depriving the majority of people in countries like Pakistan. 

Currently, only India is the opponent of Chinese interests in this region. Still, after the American evacuation from Afghanistan, it is also helpless and needs access to poke into this Chinese plundering series. In these circumstances, China plays in the region without any significant hindrance. 

China, like massive power, can only be disturbed or repulsed by the opposite superpower, America. Regarding countering China, regional stakeholders, like India and the genuine heir of Balochistan, the Balochs, may acquire some power and significance. Otherwise, like the British squashed all types of movements in the subcontinent and other colonies, similarly China, an enormous power, will trounce minor resisting forces and implement its expansionist designs, including the trail link from Kashgar to Gwadar.