Pakistani political economist S Akbar Zaidi’s damning indictment of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at a recent public lecture at the Calcutta Research Group (on 9 June) vindicates serious concerns many have about Beijing’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. Zaidi titled his talk ‘Has China taken over Pakistan?’ and produced details to back his claim.
In fact, there is more to the CPEC than the ‘sovereignty issue’ that apparently prompted India to oppose it and avoid participation in the OBOR conference in Beijing in May. Zaidi raised the spectre of Chinese colonisation, pointing to a wide range of issues, ranging from lack of transparency in the cost of projects to manning of surveillance networks in CPEC ‘smart cities’ to preferential treatment for Chinese capital to the use of Chinese labour for CPEC projects. Zaidi pointed to Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and many African countries as cases of “Chinese investments gone sour” where land had to be given to Chinese companies in lieu of unpaid loans.