Sharif’s Beijing trip: Can China-Pakistan Economic Corridor be revived?

The $62bn project, meant to resurrect Pakistan’s economy, has struggled amid attacks on Chinese workers.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to fly to China on June 4 for a five-day trip that will see him engage with Beijing’s top leadership, at a time when Islamabad has come to increasingly rely on its alliance with the world’s second-largest economy.

Sharif will visit Beijing, Xi’an and Shenzhen — the southern city that China showcases as a poster child of its dramatic economic rise since the 1980s. Shenzhen was handpicked by then-leader Deng Xiaoping as the country’s first special economic zone.

As Pakistan looks to similarly kick-start its economy from the doldrums, amid high inflation and a debt crisis, one multibillion-dollar economic project is at the heart of its ambitions:

The $62bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), formally launched in 2015 by the two Asian nations, was pitted by the governments and many analysts in both countries as a “game-changer” for Pakistan’s economy. It included the construction of a flagship seaport, power plants and road networks across the South Asian country.

Yet nearly a decade later, questions hover over the future of the project.