In 2015, one of the world's most famous strategic research institutions and the think tank of the US government, RAND Corporation , issued an analysis report. This report stated that if the US military and the People's Liberation Army fight within 500 kilometers outside the borders of mainland China, the US military has no hope of victory. The implication is that China has an overwhelming military advantage within 500 kilometers outside the national border.
The famous American think tank RAND Corporation
But, everyone hears this, don’t be too happy. Our army is invincible within 500 kilometers, but what about 500 kilometers away?
If you focus on a larger range, it is not difficult to find that we still have a weakness, that is, thousands of kilometers of marine lifeline. To put it more clearly, it is the transportation line starting from Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca to the South China Sea. For China, the deadliest part of this line is under the nose of the US military. In case of special circumstances, Singapore shuts down the Strait of Malacca, even if it only threatens to shut it down, the consequences will be unbearable for China.
So, what should we do? Over the years, the country has strengthened the protection of this maritime lifeline from three aspects: investing in ports along the route, controlling the South China Sea, and building a navy. In particular, in the first article, in the past 20 years, we have invested in the construction of 20 or 30 ports, and one of them has always made the United States sleepless. What's the matter?
Hello everyone, welcome to the cognitive pyramid, today we will talk about a port that makes Americans sleepless. This port was almost taken by the United States but lost in the end; while China once lost it, but now it has taken it back again. This port,It is Gwadar Port in Pakistan.
Gwadar Port
Gwadar Port is located in Pakistan, southwest, near the throat of Persian Gulf, and is only 400 kilometers away from the global oil transportation route, the Strait of Hormuz, which is for South Asia The routes between Central Asia and the Middle East are very important.
Because of the strategic importance of Gwadar Port, the port has changed ownership four times in the past 30 years. The United States, Pakistan, China, and Singapore have staged a 30-year tug of war here.
The Pakistani government has always had the idea of developing Gwadar Port, but the old man is relatively poor and can't afford to pay for it, so he can only find golden thighs internationally.
The first golden thigh is the United States. The United States certainly saw the important value of Gwadar Port. In the 1990s, the United States planned to invest 1.7 billion US dollars to build an oil pipeline, starting from the "Atlabad" oil field in "Turkmenistan" and passing through Afghanistan_ span3span, finally arrived at Gwadar Port.
Turkmenistan
There is a problem with this plan, that is, Turkmenistan is Russia's sphere of influence. Russia was afraid that the United States would use this pipeline to intervene in Central Asia , so it took the initiative and bought out the rights to oil and gas exploration in Turkmenistan. If this is done, there will be no more oil in the pipeline, and the US plan will be aborted.
Pakistan is unwilling to give up like this. In 1998, Pakistan secretly signed an agreement with the United States to develop Gwadar Port. This agreement is completely militarized,This will turn Gwadar Port into a U.S. military base.
After the news leaked, the whole country of Pakistan was angry and asked "who betrayed the national sovereignty". Under the pressure of strong public opinion, the parliament passed a resolution to veto the agreement signed with the United States, and the United States' plan was once again failed. .
Seeing that the United States is unreliable, in 1999, after Musharraf became the president of Pakistan, he asked the iron buddies to help build Gwadar Port from China. China agreed.
You know, around 2000, China was not particularly rich, but why should we post money to help Pakistan build ports?
In a word, China has been suffering from the Malacca Strait for a long time!
Strait of Malacca
China and Europe, Africa, Middle East 's import and export trade, especially the maintenance of China's huge industrial oil and minerals, most of them pass through the Strait of Malacca in Singapore. In other words, the Strait of Malacca directly choked the throat of China's economic development.
For the use of Gwadar Port, China's purpose is very clear, that is, to open up another backup plan for our maritime lifeline outside the Strait of Malacca.
To be a joke, with Gwadar Port, Kashgar, Xinjiang can also become a "coastal city".
Of course, after the completion of Gwadar Port, Singapore's interests have suffered the most.
Gwadar port project,The construction was officially started in 2002 and delivered on schedule at the end of 2006. However, Yaomozi also began.
At the end of 2006, Gwadar Port conducted two tenders, namely the second-phase project tender and the right to operate after completion. For these two bids, China fell off the list. The Singapore Span1span Port Authority , which entered the country, seized the second phase of the project and the 40-year right to operate the Gwadar Port.
Singapore
This is equivalent to China's hard work to plant a good tree, but the fruit is picked by others, and it is a waste of work. As for whether Singapore is to blame for the spoiler, or the United States is behind the pressure on Pakistan, we don't know.
After losing Gwadar Port, China thought of other solutions to solve Malacca’s dilemma, such as the construction of the China-Myanmar oil pipeline and the construction of the Kra Canal in Thailand, but these attempts have been difficult.
Just when we were having a headache, the Gwadar port turned around.
It turned out that the Port of Singapore Authority abandoned Gwadar Port as soon as it took it. It is said that the second phase of the project does not invest a penny; from 2007 to 2012, no more than 10 freighters entered the port in five years.
So, why did Singapore abandon Gwadar Port? Quite simply, once Gwadar Port is used, it can drive the construction of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor , and once this corridor is completed and opened, the number of ships transiting through Singapore will be reduced by one third.
So far, the real purpose of the Port of Singapore Authority to bid for the Gwadar Port has been completely exposed.
February 2013,The angry Pakistani government forcibly took back the operating rights of Gwadar Port and transferred it to China Overseas Port Holdings Limited. In November 2015, it leased 2281 acres of land use rights in the Gwadar Port Free Trade Zone to China for a lease term of 43 year.
Gwadar Port is in disrepair
At this time, most of the facilities in Gwadar Port are in disrepair under the management of Singapore. Port machinery is scrapped, oil storage tanks are rusted, and roads are seriously damaged. In desperation, China had to almost rebuild Gwadar Port according to new standards.
It was not until November 13, 2016 that Gwadar Port, which had been delayed for ten years, officially started sailing. Fifty trucks departed from Kashgar, Xinjiang, along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, transporting containers to Gwadar Port, where they were then shipped to the Middle East and Europe.
From the day China took over Gwadar Port, Western media began to hype and China was building overseas military bases.
For example, Agence France-Presse has repeatedly issued articles stating that Gwadar Port is "critical to China's maritime expansion" and that "China has since been in the Arabian Sea and has a potential naval base, making India uneasy."
These are plain nonsense! Chinese investment in Gwadar Port has nothing to do with the military. China's rise is a peaceful rise. We will neither fight for global hegemony nor interfere in other countries' internal affairs. What is the point of establishing military bases overseas? Of course, if one day our shipping lifeline is seriously threatened, it is still possible for Gwadar Port to play a special role in a special period.
China is currently helping Pakistan to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a trade corridor that includes roads, railways, oil and gas and optical cable channels. It starts at Gwadar Port, runs through Pakistan’s north and south, and ends in Kashgar, Xinjiang. The project has a budget of more than 45 billion U.S. dollars and is scheduled to be completed in 2030.After the completion, China's oil transportation distance will be shortened by 85%, which greatly saves economic and time costs.
China-Pakistan Railway
If the China-Pakistan Corridor is completely opened up, we will be able to play the whole game, and even move the Indian Ocean, the South Asian subcontinent, and the Middle East.
So here, let’s take a look at the projects that have been completed as of last year for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: First is the Pakistan PKM Expressway, with a total length of 392 kilometers and a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour. This is the first in Pakistan with Two-way six-lane highway with intelligent transportation function; followed by the Karakoram Highway Phase II with a total length of about 118 kilometers and the Lahore Railway with a total length of 25.58 kilometers; in addition, there are at least 10 power plants and an airport.
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
While building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China also invests in Iran, and builds in Chabahar Port with nuclear power plants, oil refineries, and petrochemical plants. For the industry, an oil terminal and an 80-kilometer-long oil pipeline were built on Qeshm Island, which will lead directly to Gwadar Port.
We might as well imagine the future. When these projects are all completed and put into use, the Middle East oil can be assembled at the Qeshm Island oil terminal, and then take the oil pipeline all the way, from Iran to Gwadar, and then to Kashgar. . In other words, China can directly obtain crude oil from the Middle East without going through ocean transportation.
However, at present, when the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has not yet been completed, the goods can only be docked at Gwadar Port and then by land.The cost of transporting to Kashgar and then transshipping to eastern China is much higher than that of direct shipping through the Strait of Malacca, so from an economic point of view, it is indeed not cost-effective. Moreover, the current water depth of Gwadar Port can only stop oil tankers of 80,000 to 100,000 tons, and larger ships will not be able to enter.
This is also the reason why most of the shipping still uses the Straits of Malacca. At this stage, Gwadar Port is still a spare tire for our shipping needs. For Gwadar Port to really play a role, it depends on the results of the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
So, the last and most critical question comes: Can the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor succeed?
At present, there is a certain degree of difficulty.
Construction factors such as construction and construction can hardly stop China, an infrastructure madman, but Pakistan’s internal affairs are beyond our control.
Gwadar Port and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor are both located in Pakistan with the largest area but the smallest population. It is also the most severely separatist region Balochistan .
At present, in Balochistan, an armed organization called the "Balochistan Liberation Army" is active, and it frequently engages in terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The biggest vote they made was the attack on the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi in in 2018. Two Pakistani policemen were killed in the line of duty. Since then, in order to protect the safety of more than 7,000 Chinese personnel working in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Pakistan has dispatched more than 14,000 security personnel, with an average of 2 Pakistanis protecting 1 Chinese.
So, Balochistan is unstable, the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,It will be difficult, and it will be easily destroyed even after it is built. However, the turmoil in Baluchistan stems from poverty. If you want to build roads before getting rich, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will bring more than 2 million job opportunities to Pakistan, which will bring new impetus to economic growth in Balak Province. When a place becomes rich, it will naturally be more stable.
Okay, so I’m here today. Friends who like it urge you to like and pay attention. More interesting and informative content will continue to be provided. You are also welcome to leave a message in the comment area for discussion. See you in the next issue and bless you all .
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