Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 91 posts

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#31

Post by kristianov »

hd4 wrote: post #28
nikcub wrote: post #17

Another traditional US ally re-aligning itself between the two major spheres of influence. The balance will tip further in China's favor as the USA recedes further from global development. What's interesting is if you look at the parallel international institutions that China are developing that will compete with the IMF et al, many of the partners are traditional and very close allies of the United States. For ex. w…

Traditional? Not really. The UK or France could be considered traditional allies. Pakistan was more of a conveniently-located 'strategic partner'. I say this as someone of Pakistani origin. The people of Pakistan are hugely skeptical and wary of this 'alliance' and have long felt they have been used, there is deep resentment, so it's not even slightly surprising they are looking to align themselves with those whose r…

Indeed. Pakistan is important to US because of terrorism in Afghanistan, at the same time Pakistan is important to China because of threat of India.

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#32

Post by hd4 »

kristianov wrote: post #31
hd4 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional? Not really. The UK or France could be considered traditional allies. Pakistan was more of a conveniently-located 'strategic partner'. I say this as someone of Pakistani origin. The people of Pakistan are hugely skeptical and wary of this 'alliance' and have long felt they have been used, there is deep resentment, so it's not even slightly surprising they are looking to align themselves with those whose r…

Indeed. Pakistan is important to US because of terrorism in Afghanistan, at the same time Pakistan is important to China because of threat of India.

And before Afghanistan, the Soviet Union. And as you say, the mutual interest in containing the threat posed by India. If anything, Trump courting India as much as he has been doing, at the same time talking tough against China means we have 'interesting times' ahead.

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#33

Post by hd4 »

simonh wrote: post #29
MagnumOpus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This creates more roads/rail from the ports (Gwadar/Karachi etc) to the inland (Islamabad etc), so it will help Chinese trade goods, which almost exclusively arrive by ship to the ports. (Of course, facilitating trade is of secondary importance to the geopolitical aim of gaining influence in Pakistan by making it more dependent on Chinese money and less dependent on western capital markets or western multilateral org…

Anything that makes Pakistan more prosperous and economically stable is a good thing for the west, the rest of the world and Pakistan. Anything that gets China more positively engaged with the rest of the world is good, because it makes China more interested in international stability, property rights and the rule of law. Eventually I think China will come to realize that, as a major investor and driver of economic d…

>more prosperous and economically stable is a good thing for

This is such a crucial point. No one in the world needs an unstable, angsty nuclear-armed state.

>think China will come to realize that, as a major investor and driver of economic development around the world, their interests align

I think China realized long ago that being prosperous while having hungry neighbors on its doorstep is not really conducive to regional peace. They actually prop up NK exactly for this reason I believe.

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#34

Post by fdsak »

fdsak wrote: post #6
LordFrith wrote: post #2

The Karakoram Highway, between Pakistan and China, is an amazing engineering achievement. The cartoonist and author Ted Rall has visited Central Asia many times. http://rall.com/2009/06/04/the-karakoram-highway

Most of the article is biased reflections of the author.

I have lots of issues with this author and article. I am one of the locals from that region. The picture caste in this article is very biased and not acceptable. There are issues but not that bleak as depicted by the author. Specially the things describe about Gilgit and Hunza are not correct.

The KKH has greatly helped reduced the poverty and its a vital resource for us and all the remote communities.

"Violence has been a part of life here since Pakistan and India were partitioned in 1947" >> absolutely wrong , its started after US started funding Taliban after late 90s and now its completely peaceful.

"the signs of the cheapness of life are everywhere—starving children and maimed old men line the sidewalks" >> there is poverty but not that much as forcefully describe here.

"more than 10,000 people have been shot, bombed and lynched there during the ‘90s alone" >> Ask who was behind it ? and you will get name , who funded cold-war, .. just the same b.s again ..

"A stone’s throw from the Line of Control between Pakistani- and Indian-held Kashmir" >> I dont have any good words, there is not a single place where we are so exposed to LOC crossfire.It could be Kashmir but not Gilgit-Baltistan(GB).

Lots of lies and biased commentary .. take it with grain of salt.

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#35

Post by fdsak »

sanmon3186 wrote: post #23

With most of industrial China on the eastern side, I wonder how beneficial will this trade route be, to China.

Being one of the residents along KKH, I fear nothing except one thing, that is environmental and ecological damage that might inflict on our natural flora & fauna. Neither of the country is interested in environmental effects due to high volume traffic specially to glacier

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#36

Post by Arnt »

discordianfish wrote: post #26
Tepix wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe for a couple of decades following WW2.

Why just couple of decades? Its still quite peaceful here.

Yes, but not significantly due to recent US policy or actions.

The Taiwan policy has been pretty good over the last many decades, and there have been other interludes of excellence, such as that offer to Marcos ("you can live in the US and enjoy the spoils of your crimes in peace if you move NOW and PEACEFULLY"). I'm sure there are more.

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#37

Post by AtlasLion »

In (somehow) related news, Morocco is enlisting the help of China for building a new City.

http://qz.com/841803/morocco-wants-to-build-a-new-city-from-...

They just finished building a Huge bridge near the city of Rabat.

http://www.thearabweekly.com/Economy/5954/Rabat%E2%80%99s-ca...

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#38

Post by shanwang »

grecy wrote: post #11

I'm in West Africa now, and it's staggering to drive out of a tiny jungle track onto a highway equal in size and quality to anywhere in the world. It's also staggering to catch up to the road crew and see they are all Chinese. Same goes for the hydo plants, railways, etc. Of course, almost all of the roads and railways are to extract resources, not to help locals in any way.

> Of course, almost all of the roads and railways are to extract resources, not to help locals in any way.

That's a very sinister comment, when China builds a road, it's all about grabbing resources and can not help the locals in anyway? Are the locals banned from using these roads? Are there no jobs created in those country because of these projects?

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#39

Post by smallnamespace »

nikcub wrote: post #17

Another traditional US ally re-aligning itself between the two major spheres of influence. The balance will tip further in China's favor as the USA recedes further from global development. What's interesting is if you look at the parallel international institutions that China are developing that will compete with the IMF et al, many of the partners are traditional and very close allies of the United States. For ex. w…

It's not a realignment. China and Pakistan have been close strategic allies since the 70s [1], while Pakistan's stance with the US has gone back and forth a couple of times.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Pakistan_relatio...

Re: China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan

#40

Post by Grazester »

hd4 wrote: post #28
nikcub wrote: post #17

Another traditional US ally re-aligning itself between the two major spheres of influence. The balance will tip further in China's favor as the USA recedes further from global development. What's interesting is if you look at the parallel international institutions that China are developing that will compete with the IMF et al, many of the partners are traditional and very close allies of the United States. For ex. w…

Traditional? Not really. The UK or France could be considered traditional allies. Pakistan was more of a conveniently-located 'strategic partner'. I say this as someone of Pakistani origin. The people of Pakistan are hugely skeptical and wary of this 'alliance' and have long felt they have been used, there is deep resentment, so it's not even slightly surprising they are looking to align themselves with those whose r…

Pakistan gets paid for its dealing with the U.S. It is not some friend doing the U.S. any favours. Its more of a business deal and clearly one the U.S. should reconsider. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2015/11/25/...
Post reply on HN