Military drills help China secure assets targeted by radicals in Pakistan

BANGKOK — China’s joint anti-terrorism exercise in Pakistan that began on Nov. 20 is a stark illustration of an emerging strategic reality.

While Communist Party leaders build up China’s military strength to challenge the U.S.-established world order and become the dominant power in East Asia, they have more mundane reasons to beef up the People’s Liberation Army control, such as protecting their investment portfolios.

A major thrust of the joint exercise is to help defend Beijing’s $70 billion Belt and Road Initiative projects, which have come under a series of deadly attacks by insurgents in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Under threat is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a massive infrastructure undertaking that includes upgrades to Pakistan’s north-south roads and Karakoram Highway. The project would link Kashgar in China’s landlocked Xinjiang province directly to Pakistan’s hammerhead-shaped peninsula and the port of Gwadar in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea, close to the Persian Gulf.

Drawing on Chinese investment funding through the Belt and Road Initiative, the CPEC has been expanding Gwadar’s deep-water port so large that Chinese vessels will have a much shorter route for shipping petroleum from the Persian Gulf to the oil-ravenous domestic market.

Oil-laden ships bound for China depart the Middle East through the Persian Gulf into the Arabian Sea and head south around India toward Singapore. To reach China’s east coast ports, those ships must pass through the congested Malacca Strait, where U.S.-backed Singapore monitors its narrow waters.

Before docking in China, the ships must sail up the South China Sea, which is the scene of mounting U.S.-China tensions and clashing claims by China and neighboring countries to control shipping lanes, strategic islands and undersea resources.

The Pakistan corridor would enable oil vessels from the Persian Gulf to stay in the Arabian Sea and unload their cargo at Gwadar for overland vehicle transport north to China’s Xinjiang region.

That has ignited tensions with the United States, which has cultivated ties with Pakistan and is alarmed at China’s investment and growing security footprint.

“The deepening relationship between China and Pakistan through CPEC could strain U.S.-Pakistani relations, driving Islamabad closer to Beijing,” the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, said in an analysis published on Nov. 14.

Roads, ports, plants and airports

In addition to a sleek 1,860-mile highway and upgraded port, the CPEC projects at Gwadar include the construction of a new Gwadar International Airport, a desalination plant, a coal-fired power plant, container berths, and terminals for bulk cargo, grain, oil and liquefied natural gas.

To practice protecting that investment, China’s People’s Liberation Army sent more than 300 special operations, army aviation and logistic support troops from its Western Theater Command to the Pakistan-China joint exercise, Warrior VIII, which is set to run through Dec. 11, China Military Online reported. In addition to protecting the corridor, China’s troops have been touted as a support force for Pakistan as it deals with jihadi and separatist threats within its borders.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Nov. 20, as the exercises were getting underway, that “China firmly supports Pakistan’s effort of fighting terrorism.” The 300 Chinese troops joined special operations forces from the Pakistani army’s Special Service Group (SSG).

“The exercise will focus on joint counter-terrorism cleanup and strike operations,” Chinese-government-controlled Xinhua News Agency reported. “The two sides will engage in multilevel and mixed training across various specialties and organize live troop drills in accordance with the actual combat process.”

The Chinese Defense Ministry said the exercise “aims to consolidate and deepen practical exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, as well as to strengthen their joint anti-terrorism capabilities.”

The drills began at Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Center in Pabbi in the mountainous northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan near the Khyber Pass canyon, Radio Pakistan reported.

The Chinese troops and their equipment arrived in batches on Y-20 transport aircraft and marched onto Pakistan’s tarmac in desert combat camouflage, including steel helmets topped with what appeared in online news videos to be camera and telescopic lenses.

They joined bearded Pakistani forces, similarly uniformed, at a joint flag-raising ceremony before deployment, field surveys and setting up a command post.

As a subtext to the exercises, Chinese workers and projects are targets of a fierce separatist force that has long clashed with the central government in Islamabad.

“Significantly, the military drills, the eighth edition between the all-weather friends, are being held amid reports that China is pressing Pakistan to permit its forces to provide security for hundreds of Chinese personnel working in the $70 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” said India-based Raksha Anirveda magazine, which monitors defense and aerospace industries.

“The Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) along with the Islamic militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) stepped up attacks against the Chinese nationals and the Pakistan military in Baluchistan and neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bordering the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan,” the magazine said.

Ethnic insurgents have been fighting for decades for impoverished Balochistan’s autonomy or independence. They say Pakistan has carried out extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Balochistan to quash the rebellion and exploit the province’s natural resources while neglecting to provide the funds to develop the region’s economy.

The insurgent forces have become increasingly anti-Chinese during the past 10 years amid allegations that the province and Gwadar port will profit Beijing and Islamabad but not Balochistan. Gwadar’s port is administered by Pakistan’s maritime secretary and operated by the China Overseas Ports Holding Co.

Hot, arid Balochistan borders similarly dry, bleak, undeveloped zones in southeast Afghanistan and southeast Iran. That Muslim-dominated triangle forms a Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran tinderbox of competing feuds by tribes and governments.

Pakistani officials say China’s Belt and Road investments will benefit the regions trying to undermine the projects.

“CPEC will not only benefit China and Pakistan but will have a positive impact on Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asian republics, and the region,” the Pakistan government’s CPEC Secretariat said on its website.

Beijing reportedly has pressed Islamabad to allow Chinese security forces to have boots on the ground to protect its workers, but Pakistan promised to boost security instead.

“Pakistan has decided to launch a comprehensive military operation to curb active terrorist organizations in the country’s southwest Baluchistan province, the [Pakistani] Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement,” Xinhua reported on Nov. 21.

Difficult struggle

Pakistan and China are expected to face difficulty upgrading Gwadar and the CPEC highway while grappling with bloody assaults from ethnic Baloch and other separatist forces.

In October, the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) took responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed two Chinese engineers outside Karachi’s international airport, 240 miles east of Gwadar.

“It is unacceptable for us to be attacked twice in only six months,” Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong said in response to the bombing.

In March, five Chinese engineers working on China’s Dasu Hydropower Project were killed by a suicide bomber who rammed their convoy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“We are solid in our commitment to the safety and security of Chinese nationals, institutions and projects overseas,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Mr. Lin said. “China and Pakistan have the resolve and capability to make the terrorists pay the price.”

Also in March, security officials killed eight armed insurgents who were trying to enter the Gwadar Port Authority complex.

Pakistan has declared the Balochistan Liberation Army, the Balochistan Liberation Front and other Baluch insurgents as terrorist organizations.

Balochistan’s gold, meanwhile, has attracted China Metallurgical Group Corp. (MCC), which opened gold mining sites last year in and around Baluchistan’s Saindak region.

Baluchistan’s natural resources also include oil, coal and natural gas.

Balochistan’s insurgents “perceive Chinese investments — the CPEC, in this case — as exploitative, on the grounds that the Baloch people allegedly have not benefited from socioeconomic development or improvement in their living conditions,” New Lines Institute said. “In response, Beijing has demanded the Pakistani government conduct thorough investigations and increase security measures.”

Pakistan said CPEC, which began construction in 2015, will streamline Balochistan’s road, rail, port, air and data communication systems, attract industries and agricultural development, improve medical facilities, vocational training and tourism, and create jobs.

The ambitious investment plans have sparked an effort by Washington to not be left behind.

In September 2023, Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome “visited Gwadar’s port and met with Port Authority Chairman Pasand Khan Buledi to learn about port operations and development plans, Gwadar’s potential as a regional transshipment hub, and ways to connect with Pakistan’s largest export market: the United States,” the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said in a statement.

“In a meeting with Pakistan Naval West Command, Ambassador Blome discussed regional issues and emphasized a continued partnership in the years ahead,” the embassy said.

Pakistani officials said they have tried to assure the U.S. that Gwadar will remain a commercial port open to all.