Across Mountains and Seas, Building a Shared Future
Tang Meng sheng
Professor of Peking University, China. Director of the Center for Pakistan Studies, Peking University Seventy-five years of sharing weal and woe, seventy-five years of friendship as strong as steel. In 2026, as China and Pakistan mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the peoples of both countries are immersed in the joy of friendship and cooperation. Since the two countries formally established diplomatic ties on May 21, 1951, this friendship, spanning the Himalayas and crossing the Arabian Sea, has remained rock-solid and ever-renewed amid changes in the international landscape. Together, we have traversed an extraordinary journey of three-quarters of a century, witnessing the construction of the Karakoram Highway and the transformation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor from vision to reality; we have seen prompt action in disaster relief operations time and again, and firm mutual support in international affairs. Described as a relationship “higher than the mountains, deeper than the oceans, sweeter than honey, and stronger than steel”, this bilateral bond has gone far beyond ordinary state-to-state relations and stands as a model of enduring friendship, stable cooperation and mutual benefit between countries with different civilizations and social systems.
Fruitful Practical Cooperation: Prosperity Through Extensive Consultation, Joint Contribution and Shared Benefits
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a pioneering pilot project of the Belt and Road Initiative. Guided by the leaders of both countries and strongly promoted by leading departments including China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning, and governed by the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, CPEC construction has yielded fruitful results, transformed Pakistan’s national development landscape, improved people’s well-being, and promoted integrated development between China and Pakistan.
The Corridor has addressed bottlenecks that long constrained Pakistan’s economic and social development. It has brought a total of 25.4 billion U.S. dollars in direct investment to Pakistan, created 236,000 jobs, helped add 510 kilometers of expressways, 8,000 megawatts of electricity and 886 kilometers of national core transmission power lines to Pakistan. All-round China-Pakistan cooperation has continued to expand and deepen, significantly enhancing the capacity and resilience of Pakistan’s economy.
Notably, from the outset of CPEC construction, the two sides identified transportation and energy infrastructure as breakthrough areas to ease bottlenecks constraining Pakistan’s economic growth and lay a solid foundation for its future growth. Energy projects were the centerpiece of the first phase, as energy and power supply was the most pressing need for Pakistan’s economic development. Take the 22 priority projects in the first phase of the corridor construction as an example, among which 11 are energy projects. Thanks to joint efforts, Pakistan’s power generation capacity has been greatly improved, and the problem of insufficient power supply has been basically resolved. The energy sector, the largest area of Corridor investment, has provided Pakistan with clean, stable and low-cost electricity, making an extraordinary and irreplaceable contribution to easing power shortages, reducing electricity costs, serving economic and social development and boosting local employment. Stable energy supply has strongly promoted high-quality development of the Corridor in the new stage, laid a sound foundation for Pakistan’s economic and social development, and provided key support for its industrialization and modernization. Transportation infrastructure was the second key area in the first phase. Specifically, four major transportation infrastructure projects financed by preferential loans from the Chinese government are: the Karakoram Highway Phase II Upgrade Project (Havelian–Thakot), the Sukkur–Multan Section of the Karachi–Lahore Motorway, the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project, and the China-Pakistan Cross-Border Optical Cable Project. All four projects have progressed rapidly and been successfully completed.
The construction and operation of Gwadar Port is one of the most strategically significant highlights of CPEC and China-Pakistan cooperation as a whole. This once small fishing village is gradually developing into an important regional logistics hub and industrial base. The construction of the port free zone is progressing steadily, attracting investment from Pakistan and abroad. With improved handling capacity and supporting facilities, Gwadar Port has provided Pakistan with a new gateway to the Arabian Sea, greatly enhanced its international trade status and opened new growth areas for the economic development of Balochistan Province and Pakistan as a whole through the “port + industrial park + city” model.
At present, CPEC has entered a new stage of high-quality development. While advancing major strategic infrastructure projects, the focus is shifting to industrial cooperation, with new priority areas including social livelihood, agriculture, science and technology, information technology and renewable energy. In infrastructure, the upgrade of the ML-1 Railway Line is of strategic significance to Pakistan’s economic and social development; the two sides are actively discussing phased implementation and financing models. The realignment of the Karakoram Highway (Raikot–Thakot) is crucial to keeping the only land corridor between China and Pakistan open, and steady progress is being made. In industry, industrial cooperation is the top priority of high-quality CPEC development. China and Pakistan signed the Action Plan for the China-Pakistan Industrial Cooperation Framework Agreement to strengthen industrial cooperation in various fields. China supports Pakistan’s industrialization and encourages Chinese enterprises to invest in Pakistan’s special economic zones, and welcomes third parties to actively participate in priority CPEC projects in industry, agriculture, information technology, science and technology, mining and other fields. On Gwadar Port, as an important node of regional connectivity, supporting facilities will be accelerated to fully unlock its potential as a coastal city and especially a transit freight hub with shipbuilding capacity The two sides are actively promoting the construction of industrial parks and special economic zones under the CPEC framework to attract investment, facilitate technology transfer, create large numbers of jobs, help Pakistan enhance its “blood-making” capacity, and achieve the sustainable transformation from “blood transfusion” to “blood-making”.
In the future, building on the existing achievements in CPEC construction, both sides will work together to translate the eight major steps for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation into substantive and sustained progress, and jointly build the CPEC into a corridor of growth, livelihood, innovation, green development and openness. This will be strategically aligned with Pakistan’s “UraanPakistan” program centered on the “5Es” framework (Exports; E-Pakistan; Environment; Energy; Equity and Empowerment) launched in 2023, to better benefit the two countries and peoples, and jointly build CPEC into a high-quality demonstration project for the “Belt and Road Initiative”.
—To be continued
