China's railroad to world domination: $58 billion rail link with Pakistan will reduce reliance on West

[Abid123]

China's railroad to world domination: $58 billion rail link with Pakistan will reduce reliance on West​

Chinese rail review board says system connecting Pakistan to China will change trade and geopolitics

China has 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 further reduce Western trade dependence, a report said Thursday.

The $57.7 billion plan was reviewed by analysts from the state-owned China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Co Ltd., 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 has the potential to reshape not only trade but geopolitics, according to the proposal’s review board.

A train equipped with coaches imported from China arrives at a railway station in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, Jan. 27, 2023. (Ahmad Kamal/Xinhua via Getty Images)

"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.

Though the railway connecting China to Pakistan would be China’s biggest transport project yet, this is not the first major international rail system the Institute has been involved in, having helped with Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail line in Indonesia – Asia’s first high-speed rail system – which is slated to open in June.

Passengers purchase tickets for the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 11, 2023. (Yang Yongquan/Xinhua via Getty Images)

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 additional train systems that could connect China to Turkey and Iran – significantly opening up direct access to the regions, reported the South China Morning Post.

Foreign ministers from China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan meet in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on April 13, 2023. (Bai Xueqi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

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 to better improve China's economic goals and encourage a "multipolar world" to diminish Western power – a move that top autocratic nations like Russia and Iran have also been eager to encourage as geopolitical tensions with the West continue to escalate.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/china...illion-raillink-pakistan-reduce-reliance-west

 

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[Neelo]

It’s called the “Khunjerab Railway”…the section from Taxila Junction to Havelian already exists. The extension is going to be a massive undertaking though.

Khunjerab Railway - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[FuturePAF]

India’s foreign minister alluded to CPEC today, and connectivity projects through GB. Pakistan and China point out that India built a railroad into disputed territory first.

Kashmir Valley Awaits Completion of First Rail Link to Outside

www.voanews.com

 

[CallSignMaverick]

India’s foreign minister alluded to CPEC today, and connectivity projects through GB. Pakistan and China point out that India built a railroad into disputed territory first.

Kashmir Valley Awaits Completion of First Rail Link to Outside

www.voanews.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1654493762372902915

 

[FuturePAF]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1654493762372902915

It’s a proposed railway, whose feasibility was being studied, and determined by the two authors of the article to have good ROI, even with the high cost.

Up until now it was in the “Pre-contemplation” phase, almost exclusively from the Pakistani side, as stated by the article.

With this study, it has reached the “contemplation” phase in professional circles in China, as evidenced by these professional rail engineers determining an estimated cost, and probably having done considerable analysis of what will need to be built to come to that cost assessment.

China’s rail industry does in a matter of years what other countries take decades to plan, finance and complete. Just look at the work being done on the Chengdu-Lhasa railway to gauge a similar project with similar terrain difficulties and costs.

Now what China needs is a partner in Pakistan to support this project, perhaps not financially but one that is willing to spend their political and geo-strategic (foreign relations) capital on it. The only party so publicly inclined is the PTI, while members of other parties, such as Hina Rabbani Khar recognize the need as well, according to a leaked memo. Remember she had just recently met with a Chinese delegation at a conference.

Once the Pakistani side is lined up, a deal can be struck, at which point it could be given a strategic priority designation by the top leadership in Beijing and be completed by the middle of the next decade, if the time schedule of the Chengdu-Lhasa railway is to be extrapolated into this project.

The author of the article was right to caution readers not to think this project will be done on a platter for the status quo setup in Pakistan to enjoy. It comes with real political and geo-strategic costs, and the political set up to support it. This should also be looked upon the dim prospects for the current PDM government to achieve economic relief from the IMF, and the lackluster performance of Bilawal in Gao yesterday.

If anything this project adds yet another reason, elections are needed ASAP, so the country’s interests can be met.