Usman W. Chohan
International economist
The China-Pakistan relationship stands among the most enduring and consequential partnerships in the contemporary Global South. Over several decades, it has developed through changing governments, shifting regional dynamics and profound transformations in the international system, while retaining a remarkable degree of strategic consistency. The relationship has also expanded considerably in substance, moving from its traditional foundations in diplomacy and security towards trade, investment, infrastructure, energy, technology, education and people-to-people exchanges. At a time when countries across the developing world are searching for partnerships that can support economic development while preserving strategic autonomy, China-Pakistan cooperation offers an important example of what sustained engagement between two sovereign states can achieve when it is built around long-term interests and mutual confidence.
The clearest expression of this evolution over the past decade has been the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. CPEC has provided a major economic stimulus to Pakistan through investments in energy generation, transportation infrastructure, road networks, connectivity and the development of Gwadar, while creating employment and generating economic activity across a range of sectors. The addition of substantial electricity-generation capacity helped address one of Pakistan’s most serious economic constraints, while improved road and transport infrastructure strengthened connections between major economic centres and opened new possibilities for trade and investment. The scale of this transformation should be appreciated in the context of Pakistan’s longstanding infrastructure deficit and the difficulties the country has historically faced in mobilising capital for large development projects. CPEC brought an unprecedented degree of Chinese economic engagement into Pakistan and demonstrated how strategic cooperation could be translated into tangible economic assets, employment opportunities and physical connectivity.
The success and scale of CPEC also create a compelling case for taking China-Pakistan cooperation into new areas. The global economy has changed considerably since the original conception of CPEC, and the meaning of connectivity has changed with it. Information now travels alongside capital, goods and people at extraordinary speed, while perceptions of countries and development projects can be shaped within hours through digital platforms, social media networks, international media and online communities. The information environment has consequently become an important arena of international competition, with states increasingly recognising that the ability to communicate effectively, establish credible narratives and respond rapidly to false information can have direct implications for economic, diplomatic and strategic interests. It is against this backdrop that the China-Pakistan Information Corridor, or CPIC, emerges as a timely and strategically important initiative.
The underlying idea behind CPIC is particularly relevant to the future of the China-Pakistan partnership because the two countries increasingly operate within an information environment where their economic and strategic cooperation is subject to intense scrutiny, hostile external narratives and, in many cases, deliberate disinformation. China has faced a sustained international campaign of negative narratives surrounding its economic engagement with developing countries, while Pakistan has similarly confronted extensive efforts to shape international perceptions of its domestic and foreign policies. The investigations conducted by the EU DisinfoLab provide a striking example of how sophisticated and persistent information operations can become. Its investigations into networks associated with India identified large numbers of websites, media outlets and organisations involved in coordinated efforts to promote particular geopolitical narratives. Such investigations demonstrate that the information space has become an arena of strategic competition in its own right, and countries that underestimate this reality risk allowing their international image to be shaped by actors with interests fundamentally oppositional to their own.
China and Pakistan therefore require a more organised and proactive approach towards the information environment. The appropriate response is to build credible channels through which facts, research and evidence can reach audiences quickly and consistently, while creating institutions capable of identifying false claims and providing authoritative responses. This is where CPIC, the China-Pakistan Information Corridor, can make a substantial contribution. By bringing together media organisations, businesses, think tanks, researchers, cultural institutions and young people, the initiative can create an ecosystem through which the reality of China-Pakistan cooperation is documented, analysed and communicated to audiences in both countries and also internationally.
The think-tank and research dimension of CPIC is particularly important in this regard. China-Pakistan cooperation requires serious scholarship capable of examining its economic, technological, social and geopolitical implications with intellectual independence and methodological rigour. Pakistani and Chinese researchers should have greater opportunities to collaborate on empirical studies, policy research and comparative analyses that can provide international audiences with evidence about the actual effects of bilateral projects. Similarly, media cooperation can improve the flow of verified information between the two countries, while business exchanges can communicate investment opportunities and commercial developments more effectively. Cultural and youth exchanges can complement these efforts by creating direct relationships between societies and helping younger generations understand each other’s countries through experience rather than through second-hand geopolitical narratives.
CPIC can consequently become an important instrument for shaping the next phase of the China-Pakistan relationship. Its purpose should be one of developing the capacity to communicate the joint achievements of both nations, explain their own priorities and place their cooperation within a broader story of development and South-South cooperation, and to dispel fabrications of hostile external state and non-state actors. The world should have access to credible information about what CPEC has accomplished, what new projects are being developed, what opportunities exist for businesses and researchers, and how ordinary citizens in both countries are experiencing the relationship. A strong narrative emerges from facts that are consistently documented, intelligently communicated and made accessible to international audiences.
The addendum from CPEC to CPIC therefore reflects a broader evolution in the meaning of China-Pakistan connectivity. CPEC built physical connections through roads, energy infrastructure, ports and economic networks; CPIC can build the informational connections required to explain, defend and expand those achievements. Pakistan and China have spent the past decade demonstrating what they can build together. The next challenge is ensuring that the international community understands the scale, purpose and significance of that cooperation. In an era when information itself has become a strategic asset, the countries that communicate their achievements with confidence and credibility will have a considerable advantage over those that leave their stories to be written by others.
CPIC arrives at precisely the right moment. The China-Pakistan partnership has entered a phase in which its future will depend upon expanding cooperation into technology, knowledge, innovation, culture and information alongside the established pillars of infrastructure and trade. CPEC demonstrated the power of physical connectivity to transform economic possibilities. CPIC can demonstrate the power of information connectivity to shape understanding, strengthen public confidence and build an international narrative around one of the Global South’s most consequential partnerships.
[1] Research Fellow, Economic Developments, Institute of Regional Studies
