ABSTRACT
A common rivalry with India has anchored close Sino-Pakistani relations for more than fifty years and inspired an unusual depth of cooperation in the security and political spheres. China's first-ever comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was with Pakistan, but in 2012 China's trade with Pakistan accounted for just 0.3 percent of its overall total, and investment numbers have lagged far behind the public announcements (Salidjanova 2015: 9). China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road or Belt and Road initiative, offers the prospect of transforming this dynamic. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with tens of billions of dollars of potential investment, has been described as the 'flagship project' for OBOR, which is Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy initiative, and an important component of China's economic rebalancing strategy.
