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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – the modern equivalent of the historic Silk Route – will connect China to multiple countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe through a complex web of land and sea routes. As a pilot project of a network of this magnitude, the 62 billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has far-reaching implications for future bilateral agreements with other countries along the routes, and for geopolitics in the region. This chapter will analyze CPEC along the following key strands of inquiry: Pakistan’s internal political economy, her macroeconomic stability, and an analysis of the corridor’s long-term impact.

While the literature on corridors is extensive, it does not give us a unifying theory with which to gauge the effectiveness of CPEC, which is more than an economic endeavor. In order to truly understand the dynamics of the region, the authors examine the extent to which domestic support for the CPEC may impact the whole initiative, and how the deficiencies in local infrastructure may take away from its success.

The chapter deals with China-Pakistan economic relations under China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC), which is considered to be a flagship corridor under the Chinese ‘The Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI), also known as ‘One Belt One Road’ or ‘New Silk Road’. COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the composition of the world economy. Now BRI has become even more important for China's economic strategy to sustain its long-term growth. The authors investigate CPEC to be Beijing's most ambitious project so far and mark, that despite possible concerns and challenges, CPEC will succeed. The authors identify the advantages and benefits that both Pakistan and China will gain. Further promoting of ‘westward’ strategy, which facilitates the economic and social development of Western China, boost in the export of capital, technology, production capacity is considered to give a new impulse of Chinese economic development. Rise in industrial potential, stimulating socio-economic development, improvement of population well-being, as well as maintenance of internal stability are among Pakistan's benefits from CPEC.

The chapter identifies the short- and long-term effects of the COVID-19 on implementing CPEC, as well.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss positive spillovers of this project, especially for Pakistan because the majority of the literature discusses challenges associated with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

This study reviews the available literature to assess the role of CPEC in the sustainable economic development of Pakistan.

This study indicates that CPEC is an ambitious development project because it needs a larger restructuring of the economy of Pakistan and it will be productive with the successful blend of policy changes and participation of the business community in Pakistan. This project primarily creates a huge amount of foreign direct investment for Pakistan, at the same time, it will also create greater trade opportunities to China by giving access to a new market for its trading goods.

This study established that CPEC will improve the economic growth and trade, enhance regional connectivity, overcome energy crises, develop infrastructure and establish people-to-people contacts in both the countries, which will further help to improve the tourism sector.

This paper aims to examine the impact of various economic, social and environmental issues on the sustainable development of Pakistan, both directly and indirectly through the sustainability dimensions of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion-dollar megaproject.

Using a quantitative (deductive) methodological approach, data were collected using a strategy of an online questionnaire survey from diverse stakeholders of CPEC in Pakistan. Partial least squares-based structural equation modeling technique was used to test the relationship between observed and latent variables.

The results confirmed the positive impact of various economic, social and environmental issues on the sustainable development of Pakistan directly and indirectly through the partial mediation of sustainability dimensions of CPEC.

Sustainability perceptions of stakeholders about CPEC and its relationship with sustainable development are critical issues for governments and policymakers. This paper suggest how economic, social and environmental dimensions of CPEC can enhance the positive perception which is necessary for stakeholder involvement and support for megaprojects such as CPEC.

This study evaluated the megaprojects of CPEC from a sustainability perspective through stakeholders’ perceptions by proposing and testing a parsimonious research model that has never been examined in the existing literature.

The phenomena of arbitral forum shopping to resolve a commercial investment dispute is still under development and more complicated in many states. However, for Pakistan, it seems in an evolutionary phase, where the country is struggling hard to adopt the best practice of dispute resolution through forum shopping clauses. This struggle is even more inflated with huge Chinese investment through China Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC) projects in Pakistan, which come alongside with commercial investment disputes. For this purpose, the current treaty or contract-based system between China and Pakistan and litigation based domestic civil court structure look obsolete, hence, appear to require reinstatement of forum shopping clauses under concerned treaties or contracts for CPEC investment-related issues.

The authors choose a legal research method. The research design is a comparative analysis between CPEC contracts and dispute resolution mechanism between China and Pakistan and also the domestic civil court’s litigation system. This analysis selected by the authors due to inefficient bilateral investment arrangements and efficient resolution of future commercial disputes in CPEC. While the international arbitration system is included in the assessment were particular in the time and space context. The comparison comprises on dispute resolution clauses in free trade agreement (FTA) and bilateral investment treaties (BIT) between China and Pakistan and the system of resolving disputes by CPEC clauses.

The authors finds that in the absence of CPEC forum shopping clause under dispute resolution system, Pakistan is highly at risk to lose foreign investors, and therefore, set back the goal of long term economic sustainability in the region. However, China has already made its investment policies safer with establishing three international commercial courts (also referred to as Belt and Road courts), one in Xi’an for the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt, one in Shenzhen for the Maritime Silk Road and one in Beijing that will serve as the headquarters. These courts will be offering litigation, arbitration and mediation services. According to one view, China aims to have all belt and road initiative (BRI) disputes resolved by these courts. This makes Pakistan position more awkward and needs proactive measures, as CPEC investment is based on Pakistan foreign direct investment policies and legal structure. Therefore, it will be complicated and less favourable for Pakistan to deal with such cases under Chinese Courts.

The paper’s primary contribution is finding that comprehensive analysis of alternative dispute resolution mechanism between China and Pakistan over CPEC investment is inevitable. A socio-legal research combine with an examination of Singapore International Commercial Court functions and mechanism and CPEC plans further contributes to ascertain the best model of the settlement of commercial disputes under investments in Pakistan. This research paper anticipates future economic and legal problems, which Pakistan may encounter.

By combining geopolitical and economic factors and from a geoeconomic perspective, the importance of Gwadar to China and Pakistan is discussed in detail. By applying geoeconomic approach and based on the historical approach, geographical and geopolitical conditions and international development trends of Gwadar port, the authors develop the analytical framework to analyze the Gwadar port and studied its importance in the development of China and Pakistan, as well as the positive influence on the economic growth of both countries.

A geoeconomic study is done to run a more profound and more comprehensive analysis of China–Pakistan economic relationship, as geoeconomic includes interrelations of geographical, geopolitical and economic factors in international relations.

The results show that Gwadar Port's development could enhance the economic security of both China and Pakistan. With the opening of Gwadar Port, oil and energy in the Middle East will be imported directly to China through Pakistan's oil pipeline. This is not only oil but also goods from Central Asia, and even Europe and the USA will land from Gwadar Port and enter China through the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The development of Gwadar port under the CPEC program could also dramatically increase the capacity of Pakistan's maritime trade while reducing its dependence on the current largest port, Karachi, near the India border.

Geo-economics theory is used to run a more profound and more comprehensive analysis of China–Pakistan economic relationship as geoeconomic includes interrelations of geographical, location, geopolitical and economic factors in international relations. By combining geopolitical and economic factors and from a geoeconomic perspective, this study seeks to analyze the Gwadar port development and its implications for both China and Pakistan.

This study aims to explore why marine development and maritime security in Pakistan are significant and what the Chinese concerns are. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyse a growing Pak–China bilateral interests, particularly at Gwadar, to achieve the geostrategic objectives of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The study adopts a qualitative means to discuss the significance of China’s ambitions towards the CPEC project concerning strategic deep-sea management and maritime regulations in the region, with a particular focus on the Gwadar Port.

The paper concludes that the Gwadar Port is a critical element for maritime security in the whole region. The study also provides an analysis of national and international, security and legal challenges associated with CPEC.

Most of the potential outcomes have already been discussed in public, though a limited academic discussion is available on the legal aspects. It is particularly so with regard to the development and capacity building in the maritime sector of Pakistan under this project. This study aims to explore why marine development and maritime security in Pakistan is significant and what the Chinese concerns are.

This study examines the new venue of moving illegal wealth from Pakistan under the umbrella of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The study first discussed the features of CPEC in short and how it may bring stability and a new phase of development in the region and also in Pakistan. The review of related literature has suggested that previous studies are more focused on the advantages of CPEC and are almost neglecting the cons of the said project. Later, the research puts light on the problem of money laundering from Pakistan through CPEC and related trade transactions; Walker’s Gravity model has been used to calculate the attractiveness of money laundering. It has highlighted that China’s attractiveness for moving illegal wealth from Pakistan is increased in recent years; the risk of an increase in the amount of money laundered is also analyzed through the Fan Chart technique. Attributes which are making China more attractive for Pakistani wrongdoers are also discussed. The study aims to conclude that if the problem of money laundering will be addressed properly, the CPEC will play a vital role in bringing stability in Pakistan.

This study uses a descriptive and quantitative approach. This study uses the Walker’s Gravity Model updated by Unger et al. (2006) to measure money laundering in Pakistan. A newly developed technique for forecasting that is Fan Chart has been used to predict the trend of China’s attractiveness for money laundering as a preferred destination from Pakistan.

The study finds out that China is already increasing its ranking as a favorite destination for money laundering from Pakistan. Fan Chart analysis suggests that the attractiveness score will be increased.

The study helps in highlighting the problem of increase in money laundering from Pakistan through China under the umbrella of CPEC.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study found on the topic of the problem of money laundering linked with CPEC, and this is the first effort to point out the problem.