China's top political advisory body, the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is about to meet on May 21, followed the next day by a session of China’s top legislature, the 13th National People’s Congress. When they open this week in Beijing, China’s leaders are likely to give pandemic-related issues, including economic recovery in the post-Covid-19 world, high priority.
In this context, China is about to signal whether an inward-looking approach or an outward-oriented one will be favoured, which has important consequences for the implementation of the BRI. Some of the published points prior to the meeting by the State Council of China’s Central Committee hint at an effort towards developing China’s western provinces [Beijing plans a ‘New Era’, bins Xi’s ‘China Dream’]. Currently, they are economically much less developed than China’s eastern provinces. It remains to be seen whether such political guidance will be given by China’s leadership and it has to be considered that what at first seems an inward-oriented effort may have a spillover effect for the BRI.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has been a major BRI project aimed at improving the infrastructure within Pakistan and between Pakistan and China. For China, there is not only the benefit of increased trade with Pakistan, but also the increased connectivity for China's western provinces to the sea through the port of Gwadar. As the western regions are rich in natural resources, this may open up the opportunity not only for exports, but also for the manufacturing sector. Lastly, there are opportunities for developing closer connections with other countries in the vicinity of the western provinces that have expressed interest in utilizing the Karachi and Gwadar ports for trade operations, such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan [Uzbekistan Looks To China’s Belt & Road And Pakistan’s CPEC To Connect Through To Gwadar & Karachi Ports].
Mirela Petkova
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