Pakistan & China is an "iron brother" but not for forever. Is China a hidden enemy of Pakistan? Replied by Hafsa Akram Masters in international relations & Foreign policy :-Source Quora

 

I think CPEC is an advance colonial shape.China work for its trading purposes but Pakistan is in big loss.Pakistani establishment have no idea to save Pakistan from Chinese .China is grabbing Pakistan land through CPEC, Remember East India Company British came into Mughal India in the name of Trade but after many years British occupied whole India…Friendship is temporary no one is enemy & friend of each other..

Pak-China Friendship :

Bilateral relations have evolved from an initial Chinese policy of neutrality to a partnership with a smaller but militarily powerful Pakistan. Diplomatic relations were established in 1950, boundary issues resolved in 1963, military assistance began in 1966, a strategic alliance was formed in 1972, and economic co-operation began in 1979. China has become Pakistan's largest supplier of arms and its third-largest trading partner.

Sino-Pak 1963 agreement :

After Pakistan voted to grant China a seat in the United Nations, the Chinese withdrew the disputed maps in January 1962, agreeing to enter border talks in March. The willingness of the Chinese to enter the agreement was welcomed by the people of Pakistan. Negotiations between the nations officially began on October 13, 1962 and resulted in an agreement being signed on 2 March 1963.

It was signed by foreign ministers Chen Yi for the Chinese and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for the Pakistani.

Pakistan surrendered 5,300 km (2,050 sq mi) of territory to China (to which they believe it had no right in the first place). In fact, if anything, Pakistan gained a bit of territory, around 52 km(20 sq mi), south of the Khunjerab Pass.

What is CPEC?

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a strategic economic project aiming at increasing regional connectivity for the economic development of Pakistan and China. Economic corridor will connect Pakistan's Gwadar port with China's northwestern region

 between 2014 and 2030. It is not only expected to be beneficial for Pakistan and China but is also expected to have positive spillover effects  to other neighboring countries by enhancing geographical connectivity of Pakistan with landlocked central Asian states. More than US$46 billion will be invested in Pakistan's power, infrastructure, industrial and agriculture sectors under the CPEC. With the reduction in power outages

 due to enhancement in electricity generation.

Issue raised by Pak economists :

Despite assurances by Pakistani and Chinese officials about the mega project’s powers to bring about an economic revolution, doubts continue to be raised.

“I have my concerns because of a complete lack of transparency,” Akbar Zaidi, one of Pakistan’s political economists, “If it’s so fabulous, tell us the terms of investments. Why not be upfront about it? I cannot definitively say whether CPEC is good, bad or a disaster for Pakistan.”

In a lecture Zaidi delivered in Kolkata earlier this month, he said that CPEC seemed more like a Chinese project; the benefits are heavily loaded towards China, with Pakistan benefiting because it happens to be “part of the geographical terrain”.

He also raised concerns over the massive loans involved, citing Sri Lanka and Tajikistan’s heavy borrowing from China. In 2011, Tajikistan had to cede 1% of its territory to China in exchange for unpaid loans. Sri Lanka will give away 80% of its share of the Hambantota deep sea port

 to China for the next 99 years, in exchange for USD 1.1 billion in debt relief.

Disrupting the flow by CPEC :

with the use of dirty fuel, Vaqar Zakaria, managing director of environmental consultancy firm Hagler Bailly Pakistan , is concerned about the lack of conversation around the impacts of hydropower projects on river ecosystems.

China has promised to finance and build the USD 50 billion five-dam Indus Cascade to generate more than 22,000 MW. The cascade could stop the flow of silt – the lifeline of agriculture downstream – as well as drastically reduce the flow of water in the Indus, especially affecting downstream areas like Pakistan’s Sindh province. Thousands of people will be displaced.

The original Tarbela dam, completed in 1977, submerged 120 villages, the Indus Cascade would expand on it massively..“Future changes in climate are expected to increase the variability of flow on the Indus and change the timing of the peak flow,” says Khan, That could have a very disruptive impact on water

Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, country representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) , is worried that some CPEC projects passing through the mountainous terrain will disturb the fragile ecosystem.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the provincial government has started an afforestation campaign , more than 54,000 trees have already been chopped down

 to make way for the CPEC project.

“Since the environment became a provincial matter, I have doubts about the technical capacity of environmental protection agencies to carry out sound EIAs,” says Cheema

Najam emphasizes :“If we do that, I think the overall impact can be economically and environmentally beneficial,” says Najam. If not “we will lament the mistakes of omission in ten and twenty years.

“Mass transport is a very important – so is rail and highway connectivity – but the question is ‘how is it done’,” says Najam. “If sustainability – economic as well as environmental – is a key element of the design then these can be excellent investments. If ignored, then it can be catastrophic.

“The social and cultural impacts are likely to be of much higher significance, such as non-inclusive development in Gwadar and Thar, building the Karakoram Highway, and loss of environmental values in Gilgit-Baltistan region. Changes in access change the physical and social landscape,”

Development project in Azad kashmir :

China had earlier signed agreements with Pakistan for developing an economic corridor that gives China access to western Indian Ocean, or the Arabian Sea in return for investment for infrastructure development in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

Later, when Xi Jinping's regime launched ambitious the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and included CPEC as its part in Pakistan, the overall investment on the project was pushed to $60 billion. With this came not only Chinese money but also Communist China's professionals in Azad kashmir

Only last year, reports suggested that Pakistan had to "evacuate" dozens of Chinese nationals trapped in the region due to exchange of fire along the Line of Control (LoC). The Chinese nationals were at the construction site of Neelum Jhelam hydel project.

Some reports suggested these Chinese nationals were soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) stationed in the area to guard the CPEC projects. Interestingly, China has direct physical access to and entry into Pakistan.

The Skardu airbase was expanded by Pakistan last year and it is located about 100 km from Leh airbase on the Indian side. In 2019, Pakistan had conducted a joint air exercise with China at the Skardu airbase.

Chinese takeover of Sindh islands feared as Pakistan government took crucial steps :

This so-called 'game-change' which was supposed to trigger economic development in Pakistan has proved to be a big fraud by China.

The Pakistan government has taken loans at extremely high rates from China in order to implement various projects under the CPEC. Pakistan is finding it hard to repay these loans and China is taking advantage of the situation by bolstering its economic and political stranglehold over the country.

Now it is being feared by some sections within Pakistan that the government may cede Pakistani territory to China in order to repay the CPEC loans.

While the Gwadar port, which is a prime part of the CPEC project, has been virtually taken over by China, Sindh is also facing the heat with Chinese fishing trawlers fast depleting fishing stocks along the Pakistan coastline at stocks along the Pakistan coastline at the expense of local fishermen.