Pakistani workouts present how Chinese investments gasoline army mission creep

BANGKOK, Thailand — China’s joint, three-week, anti-terrorism exercise in Pakistan, which kicked off November 20, is a stark illustration of an emerging new strategic reality.

While China’s Communist leaders build up the country’s military strength to challenge the global U.S.-established world order and to become the dominant power in East Asia, there are also more mundane reasons to beef up the power of the People’s Liberation Army, such as protecting one’s investment portfolio.

A major thrust of the new joint exercise is to help defend Beijing’s $70 billion Belt and Road Initiative projects, which have faced a series of deadly attacks by anti-Chinese insurgents in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Under threat is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a massive infrastructure undertaking that includes upgrading Pakistan’s north-south roads and Karakoram Highway, linking Kashgar in China’s landlocked Xinjiang province directly to Pakistan’s hammerhead-shaped peninsula and the port of Gwadar in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea, close to the Persian Gulf.

Drawing on Chinese investment funding through the Belt and Road Initiative, the CPEC has been expanding Gwadar’s deep-water port so large Chinese vessels will have a much shorter route for shipping petroleum from the Persian Gulf back to the oil-ravenous domestic market.

Currently, oil-laden ships bound for China depart the Middle East through the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Sea, and then head south around India toward Singapore. To reach China’s east coast ports, those ships must pass through the congested Malacca Strait, where U.S.-backed Singapore monitors its narrow waters.

Before docking in China, they then must sail up the South China Sea, which is the scene of mounting U.S.-China tensions and clashing claims by China and countries around the region for control of shipping lanes, strategic islands, and undersea resources.

The Pakistan corridor, however, would enable oil vessels from the Persian Gulf to stay in the Arabian Sea and unload their cargo at Gwadar for overland vehicle transport north to China’s Xinjiang region.

And that in turn has sparked new tensions with the United States, which has cultivated its own ties to Pakistan and watched with alarm as China’s investment and security footprint in the country have grown in recent years.

“The deepening relationship between China and Pakistan through CPEC could strain U.S.-Pakistani relations, driving Islamabad closer to Beijing,” the Washington-based Newlines Institute warned in an analysis published November 14.

Roads, ports, plants and airports

In addition to a sleek 1,860-mile highway and upgraded port, the CPEC projects at Gwadar include the 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 liquefied natural gas.

To practice protecting that investment, China’s People’s Liberation Army 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 is set to run through December 11, China Military Online reported. In addition to protecting the corridor, China’s troops are also being touted as a support force for Pakistan as it deals with jihadist and separatist threats within its own borders.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Nov. 20, as the exercises were just getting underway, that “China firmly supports Pakistan’s effort of fighting terrorism.” The 300 Chinese troops joined special operations forces from the Pakistan Army’s Special Service Group (SSG).

“The exercise will focus on joint counter-terrorism clean-up and strike operations,” Chinese-government-controlled Xinhua News Agency reported. “The two sides will engage in multi-level and mixed training across various specialties, and organize live troop drills in accordance with the actual combat process.”

China’s Ministry of Defense said in its own statement that the exercise “aims to consolidate and deepen practical exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, as well as to strengthen their joint anti-terrorism capabilities.”

The drills began at Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Center in Pabbi, in mountainous northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan near the Khyber Pass canyon, Radio Pakistan reported.

The Chinese troops and their equipment arrived in batches on Y-20 transport aircraft and marched onto Pakistan’s tarmac in desert combat camouflage, including steel helmets topped with what appeared to be camera and telescopic lenses, according to online news videos.

They joined bearded Pakistani forces, similarly uniformed, at a joint flag-raising ceremony before deployment, field surveys, and setting up a command post.

But there is a subtext to the exercises, as China finds its workers and projects the target of a fierce separatist force that has long clashed with the central government in Islamabad.

“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 Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) along with the Islamic militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) stepped up attacks against the Chinese nationals and the Pakistan military in Baluchistan and neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bordering the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan,” the magazine said.

Ethnic insurgents have been fighting for decades for impoverished Balochistan’s autonomy or independence. They claim Pakistan has carried out extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Balochistan in order to quash the rebellion, and exploits the province’s natural resources while neglecting to provide the funds to develop the region’s economy.

The insurgent forces have become increasingly anti-Chinese during the past 10 years, amid allegations that the province and Gwadar port will profit Beijing and Islamabad, but not Balochistan. Gwadar’s port is administered by Pakistan’s Maritime Secretary, and operated by the China Overseas Port Holding Co.

Hot, arid Balochistan borders similarly dry, bleak, undeveloped zones in southeast Afghanistan and southeast Iran. That Muslim-dominated triangle forms a Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran tinderbox of competing feuds by tribes and governments.

Pakistani officials argue China’s Belt and Road investments will benefit the very regions that are trying to undermine the projects now underway.

“CPEC will not only benefit China and Pakistan but will have a positive impact on Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asian republics, and the region,” said the Pakistan government’s CPEC Secretariat on its website.

Beijing reportedly has pressed Islamabad to allow China’s security forces to have boots on the ground to protect its workers, but Pakistan instead promised to boost security.

“Pakistan has decided to launch a comprehensive military operation to curb active terrorist organizations in the country’s southwest Baluchistan province, the [Pakistani] Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement,” Xinhua reported on Nov. 21.

Difficult struggle

Pakistan and China however are expected to face difficulty upgrading Gwadar and the CPEC highway while grappling with bloody assaults by ethnic Baloch and other separatist forces.

In October, the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed a suicide bombing that killed two Chinese engineers outside Karachi’s international airport, 240 miles east of Gwadar.

“It is unacceptable for us to be attacked twice in only six months,” an angry Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong publicly stated after the bombing.

The earlier attack killed five Chinese engineers working on China’s Dasu Hydropower Project in March when a suicide bomber rammed their convoy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“We are solid in our commitment to the safety and security of Chinese nationals, institutions and projects overseas,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time. “China and Pakistan have the resolve and capability to make the terrorists pay the price,” the ministry’s spokesman Mr. Lin said.

Also in March, security officials killed eight armed insurgents who were trying to enter the Gwadar Port Authority complex.

Pakistan has declared the Balochistan Liberation Army, the Balochistan Liberation Front and other Baluchi insurgents as terrorist organizations.

Balochistan’s gold meanwhile has 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.

Balochistan’s insurgents “perceive Chinese investments — the CPEC, in this case — as exploitative, on the grounds that the Balochi people allegedly have not benefited 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.”

Pakistan said CPEC, which began construction in 2015, will streamline Balochistan’s road, rail, port, air and data communication systems, attract industries and agricultural development, improve medical facilities, vocational training, tourism, and create jobs.

The ambitious investment plans have even sparked an effort by Washington not to be left behind.

In September 2023, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome “visited Gwadar’s port and met with Port Authority 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,” the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said in a statement at the time.

“In a meeting with Pakistan Naval West Command, Ambassador Blome discussed regional issues and emphasized a continued partnership in the years ahead,” the embassy said.

Pakistani officials say they have tried to assure the U.S. that Gwadar will remain a commercial port open to all.