China-Pakistan Information Initiative Will Fail To Revive CPEC's Image: Report

(MENAFN- IANS) New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) Efforts by China and Pakistan to improve the image of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through the newly launched China Pakistan Information Corridor (CPIC) are unlikely to reverse growing public scepticism about the initiatives' viability and may instead attract greater scrutiny on other programmes under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a new report has said.

The report from Greece City Times said the CPIC's hidden objective is defending the CPEC, which has faced criticism over unmet expectations, incomplete projects and concerns about financial sustainability.

Though some highways have been built under the initiative, railway infrastructure remains underdeveloped, and the so-called crown jewel of the CPEC, Gwadar Port, has struggled to operate.

CPIC was presented as a fact-checking and public-relations mechanism to strengthen media cooperation, information sharing, business engagement, think-tank collaboration and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

“If CPEC is its body and the shared future, CPIC will be its voice. If CPEC connects our economies, CPIC will connect our understanding,” Pakistan's Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said.

Pakistan owes $29.2 billion to China, accounting for about one-third of its external debt, while concerns have grown over the ability of infrastructure and power projects under CPEC to generate sufficient revenue.

"Beijing has already expressed anguish over Pakistan delaying loan repayments, often denying to restructure the debt. China showed reluctance to renegotiate contracts even as unpaid loan dues continued to rise," the report said.

“Pakistani people were forced to pay a debt service surcharge on their electricity bills as the outstanding payments to CPEC power projects reached PKR423 billion by June 2026. Against such a backdrop, the CPEC's promise of improved energy security has instead created suspicion among Pakistani people,” the report noted.

Pakistan's plan to become a regional transit hub remains just a dream, even as ordinary citizens see their money going to China through loan payments, and feel CPEC's benefits were concentrated among Pakistani elites.

Further, the publication noted that CPEC's failure hurts China's plans to expand its diplomatic, economic, and military footprints elsewhere, through the BRI.

“Sri Lanka has become hesitant about the BRI now after many projects became unviable, even as it lost sovereign control of the Hambantota Port to China,” the report said.

-IANS

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