22 May 2015

Editorial: China - A Bump in the Silk Road

By Cory Bender and James Chen

China’s grand plans for the region could be derailed without a change in approach.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a highly public trip to Islamabad to cement Pakistan’s place in his Silk Road Economic Belt. He also used the opportunity to highlight the importance of counterterrorism to the success of these plans. In doing so, Xi is acknowledging that China’s biggest obstacle in constructing the Silk Road might not be mountains or rivers. Instead, it is ethnic and religious tensions across Central Asia that threaten to scuttle the project – and China doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.

China is well aware of these tensions, and it fears them. In fact, many argue that China’s Silk Road strategy is partly a security measure meant to combat extremism and terrorism, the idea being that economic development will quench these forces. This, combined with iron-handed security measures, has been Beijing’s approach to governing Xinjiang and Tibet. And it seems now that China is trying to extend that model across post-Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, as recent unrest and terrorist attacks in China show, there are limitations to this approach. For example, Xinjiang, the homeland of China’s Muslim Uighur population, has seen an upsurge in deadly attacks in recent years. Ironically, massive Chinese investments in Xinjiang have only fuelled violence, as Uighurs fear that their cultural and religious identity is being eroded by the flood of Han Chinese money, businesses, and workers.

We already see this situation unfolding in Pakistani Balochistan, home to the Gwadar port. Baloch leaders have come to see the port, which will play a critical role in China’s Maritime Silk Road plans, as a symbol of oppression and foreign domination. If discontent turns to violence, the port in Gwadar may be the first victim.

Read the full story at The Diplomat