China’s joint, three-week anti-terrorism exercise in Pakistan from November 20-December 11 aims to help defend Beijing’s$ 70 billion Belt and Road Initiative ( BRI ) projects against deadly anti-Chinese insurgents in Baluchistan province.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor ( CPEC ), which includes upgrading Pakistan’s north-south roads and Karakoram Highway to link Kashgar in China’s landlocked Xinjiang province directly to Pakistan’s hammerhead-shaped peninsula and port of Gwadar in Baluchistan on the Arabian Sea, close to the Persian Gulf, is under threat.
Big Chinese vessels does have a much shorter road for shipping gas from the Persian Gulf to oil-hungry China because of the CPEC’s expansion of Gwadar’s deep-water slot. Oil-laden ships already heading for China cross the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Sea, wrap up in India, and head south toward Singapore.
To achieve China’s west coast ports, those boats must go through the crowded Malacca Strait, where US-backed Singapore monitors its small waters. They must then ship up the South China Sea, which is racked by local rivalries and US-China to maintain its delivery lanes, islands, and underwater resources.
However, the CPEC do allow oil arteries from the Persian Gulf to remain in the Arabian Sea and unload their goods at Gwadar for overland vehicle transportation north to Xinjiang, China.
Washington-based Newlines Institute reported on November 14 that the deepening relationship between China and Pakistan through CPEC was pressure US-Pakistani relationships and bring Islamabad closer to Beijing.
In addition to a sleek 1, 860-mile (3, 000-kilometer ) highway and upgraded port, the CPEC projects at Gwadar include construction of a new Gwadar International Airport, a desalination plant, a coal-fired power plant, container berths and terminals for bulk cargo, grain, oil and liquified natural gas.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army ( PLA ) sent more than 300 special operations, army aviation and logistic support troops from its Western Theater Command to the Pakistan-China Joint Exercise, Warrior VIII, which ends on December 11, China Military online reported.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported on November 19 that China’s Western Command “guards the Line of Actual Control ( LAC ) with India and the China-Pakistan border.”
Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, stated on November 20 that” China strongly supports Pakistan’s effort to combat terrorism.” Special Operations Forces from the Pakistan Army’s Special Service Group ( SSG) were sent by the 300 Chinese soldiers.
” The training will focus on shared counter-terrorism clean-up and strike functions”, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The two sides will conduct multi-level and mingled training across a range of specialties, and conduct live army drills in accordance with the actual combat procedure, according to Xinhua.
China’s Ministry of Defense said,” This training aims to strengthen and develop practical markets and cooperation between the two forces, as well as to improve their joint anti-terrorism abilities”.
The training began at Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Center in Pabbi, in rocky north Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan near the Khyber Pass valley, Radio Pakistan reported.
According to online media videos, the Chinese troops and their products arrived in batches on Y-20 transport plane and marched onto Pakistan’s road in plain fight camouflage, including steel helmets topped with what appeared to be camera and telescopic lenses.
They joined bearded Muslim forces, equally armed, at a joint flag-raising service before implementation, field surveys and setting up a command post.
” Significantly, the military drills, the eighth edition between the all-weather friends, are being held amid reports that China is pressing Pakistan to permit its forces to provide security for hundreds of Chinese personnel working in the$ 70 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor”, reported India-based Raksha Anirveda magazine, which monitors defense and aerospace industries.
The magazine reported that the Baluch Liberation Army ( BLA ) and the Islamic militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ( TTP ) increased attacks on Chinese citizens and the Pakistani military in Baluchistan and the neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that are bordering the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Rebels have been fighting for years for underprivileged Baluchistan’s freedom or freedom. They claim that Pakistan exploits the state’s natural resources while neglecting to modernize, and undertakes extrajudicial murders and enforced disappearances in Baluchistan.
They became anti-Chinese during the past 10 times amid allegations that the state and Gwadar interface will gain Beijing and Islamabad, but no Baluchistan. Gwadar’s slot is administrated by Pakistan’s Maritime Secretary, and operated by the China Overseas Port Holding Co.
In south Afghanistan and south Iran, hot, arid Baluchistan borders also dry, bleak, and undeveloped regions. That Muslim-dominated square types a Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran conflagration of competing rivalries by tribes and governments.
“CPEC will not only gain China and Pakistan but will have beneficial effects on Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asian states, and the place”, said the Pakistan administration’s CPEC Secretariat on its site.
Pakistan promised to improve security, but Beijing officially requested that Islamabad permit China’s security forces to place boots on the ground to protect Foreign staff.
” Pakistan has decided to launch a comprehensive military operation to suppress active criminal organizations in the country’s southwest Baluchistan state, the]Pakistani] Prime Minister’s Office said in a assertion”, Xinhua reported on November 21.
But, Pakistan and China are expected to have trouble upgrading Gwadar and the CPEC roadway while dealing with vicious attack by cultural Baluch and other secessionists.
In October, the separatist Baluch Liberation Army ( BLA ) claimed a suicide bombing, which killed two Chinese engineers outside Karachi’s international airport, 240 miles ( 380 kilometers ) east of Gwadar.
After the attack, scarlet Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong officially declared,” It is unethical for us to be attacked double in just six months.”
Five Chinese specialists were killed in a previous strike in March when a suicide bomber rammed their fleet in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated at the time,” We are good in our devotion to the safety and security of Chinese citizens, organizations, and initiatives abroad.”
According to the ministry’s spokesman Lin,” China and Pakistan have the resolve and capability to force the terrorists to pay the price.”
Additionally, in March, security personnel shot eight armed insurgents who were attempting to enter the Gwadar Port Authority complex.
The Baluchistan Liberation Army, the Baluchistan Liberation Front, and other Baluchi insurgents have been labeled terrorist organizations by Pakistan.
Baluchistan’s untapped deposits of gold, meanwhile, have attracted China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC), which opened gold mining sites in 2023 under Beijing’s Copper-Gold Project in Baluchistan’s Saindak region and nearby locations.
Baluchistan’s natural resources also include oil, coal and natural gas.
Baluchistan’s insurgents “perceive Chinese investments – the CPEC, in this case– as exploitative, on the grounds that the Baluchi people allegedly have not benefitted from socioeconomic development or improvement in their living conditions”, Newlines Institute said.
” In response, Beijing has demanded the Pakistani government conduct thorough investigations and increase security measures”, it said.
Pakistan said CPEC, which began construction in 2015, will streamline Baluchistan’s road, rail, port, air and data communication systems, attract industries and agricultural development, improve medical facilities, vocational training and tourism, and create jobs.
The US Embassy in Islamabad stated in a statement at the time that US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome “visited Gwadar’s port and met with Chairman Pasand Khan Buledi to learn about port operations and development plans, Gwadar’s potential as a regional trans-shipment hub, and ways to connect with Pakistan’s largest export market: the United States.”
Ambassador Blome and Pakistan Naval West Command spoke about regional issues and emphasized a continued partnership in the days to come, according to the embassy.
Pakistan has made an effort to keep Gwadar open and commercial, as evidenced by Pakistan.
Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based American foreign correspondent reporting from Asia since 1978, and winner of Columbia University’s Foreign Correspondents ‘ Award. Excerpts from his two new nonfiction books,” Rituals. Killers. Wars. &, Sex. — Tibet, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka &, New York” and” Apocalyptic Tribes, Smugglers &, Freaks” are available here.