This is a tough one, I didn't oppose CPEC only the way it was put into motion.
You need a third option to include those who have opposed CPEC in its current form right from the start which is the category I fall into.
Instead what I've always been opposed to is the FTA to China and every other country Pakistan has signed one with. Pakistan's industries, outside of maybe the textile sector, simply do not have the ability to compete globally and opening up the economy to foreign competition after years of neglect (i.e. no subsidies, tariffs imposed on imports of raw materials and capital equipment, etc...) will only lead to failure.
Stop peddling your Indian agenda.
I was a skeptic.
Not against CPEC.
How about sending them to Siberia? Even worse to India.
Anyone who opposes CPEC should be kicked out of Pakistan.
I have always been for it for a long time , I have done my bit for my people and country! CPEC is not one proposition but a composition of multitude of ideas and projects, with great inputs from historical leaders both Chinese and Pakistani who have helped contrived it to fruition
fully support cpec .. but on our terms
I support what Musharaf supported
I didnot like the CPEC deals hidden from public, as public has to pay to debt, and the negotiation of Pakistan China deals was not correct from the start. Need to renegotiate deals.
CPEC should be looked as a transfer of the technology , manufacturing and infrastructure
Build up necessary for that...if it fails in these then its a failure..anyone can guess how are we doing "so far" in this...my relatives working in CPEC planning comission are advocating for the same ..chinese are also open..the problem is pakistani side..pakistani just want motorways and lahore projects..
What I will say is that anyone who supports CPEC, particularly in its current form, has little understanding of it and how destructive it is for Pakistan while there are clearly some who have ulterior objectives which are anti-Pakistan.
Just for a moment think about it rationally...
The people pushing CPEC on Pakistan were and are the same people who brought you the FTA with China with promises of riches only to see Pakistan's trade deficit with China grow by 50% in the first 5 years alone with none of the proposed benefits for the country they talked about.
The PTI are no exception, they've acted like complete nitwits because even after the Pakistan Business Council published its report in 2013 about how Pakistan was incapable of taking advantage of the FTA:
Further stating that:
“Many believe that the product coverage of the FTA should be increased i.e. increasing the number of products part of the current FTA. Given the low utilization (5%), this would be an exercise in futility. A more appropriate measure would be to renegotiate the FTA in such a way that products that have high potential of exports as well as enjoy a comparative advantage against the rest of the world are given higher concessions”
What does the PTI do? They sign FTA 2.0 with China.
Those that kept signing CPEC deals also happen to be the same people who signed signed contracts with Thethyan Copper Company to mine Reqo Diq for its gold and copper a company that planned on ferrying the slurry via pipeline to Gwadar port then by ship it out of the country to process elsewhere while Pakistan earned pennies for every dollar the finished gold and copper would have earned once refined and turned into value added products (ex. jewelry, copper wiring, electronics components, etc...).
So these are the people you trust?
CPEC was intially promoted on one big lie about turning Pakistan into a trading hub for Chinese goods into and out of their country which I already went over in a previous post outlining the costs which confirm the sea route will be significantly cheaper for 95% of China's population and industries and that's even if they ever build direct rail links with China.
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/cpec-fta-deals-built-on-lies-hurting-pakistan.621629/
You still keep seeing these rumors of said rail links in the works, sometimes articles come out about how they're going to be constructed soon.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1227664
However, if you look over the actual studies done on CPEC, like the "Pakistan Transport Plan Study in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (PTPS) 2006", you'll find that even "long term" this was never a goal or even considered a possibility:
https://openjicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/11821907_01.pdf
If you notice the "third phase" end date of 2025 from the study above corresponds to the date in the "Long Term Plan for China-Pakistan Economic Cooridor (2017-2030)" linked further below which itself states that:
"By 2025, the CPEC building strive to be basically done"
Furthermore, all we're likely to see interconnecting China and Pakistan is the:
You still think there's going to be a China-Pakistan railway in 5 years or 10 years?
I have yet to find any publicly available studies on this proposed rail link despite them supposedly having been done one according to articles out there.
Can any of you find it?
Considering the US’ Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2004, the last year they updated figures for all forms of freight, confirmed that transport by Truck cost 500% more than by Class I Rail which itself was about 30% more expensive than moving goods by sea it paints an even dimmer picture of the possibility of Pakistan becoming a hub for Chinese trade into and out of their country.
https://www.bts.gov/content/average-freight-revenue-ton-mile
Then some have this weird notion that China is going to be moving its industries Westward so maybe this great transit trade dream, which it appears even official reports and studies on CPEC never considered a possibility, will still happen but what is that based on?
China's own National Bureau of Statistics has been confirming year after year that the countries population is increasingly urbanizing, moving eastward and the only reason you still see the numbers of people living in rural China to the West is largely because of their Hukou system.
Back in 2014, though I'm not exactly sure how much work has been done on this, the Chinese government was seeking to reform the system to allow about 100 Million people from rural Western China to move East with their families into the larger cities:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/31/china-reform-hukou-migrant-workers
Mind you what was proposed, even if followed through, is nowhere near the reforms that the people were looking for because an outright overhaul of it will likely lead to hundreds of millions moving East meaning this imaginary "great push West" won't happen if anything it'll be a great push East instead.
Then you have confirmations of many of China's industries, like manufacturing globally, increasingly turning towards mechanization of its workforce so don't require a source of cheap manual human labour like what you'll find in Western China.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966
At least people have begun to realize how utterly BS those promises of transit trade are so now you've got this second part to it where many are going on about the benefits of infrastructure investment and how we needed roads, rail, seaports, power plants, etc...
In regards to CPEC what the CPC did was open up credit facilities to private companies that wanted to take advantage of opportunities in Pakistan stemming from years of outright neglect particularly during PPP and PML-N rule.
However, many Chinese companies have a history of exploitation and fraud including those already inside Pakistan who are known to evade taxes so the government should always be weary and careful of what agreements it signs:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2...zes-89-million-shoddy-face-masks#.XqZx6HvLfAA
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1710155/2-pakistan-catches-chinese-firm-evading-rs1-12b-taxes/
The majority of those "investments" are related to the power sector which are between the GoP and private enterprises not the CPC. These private enterprises are usually collaborations between Chinese and Pakistani businesses (with Chinese companies usually owning controlling share) and the deals they've signed appear to have no direction and put all the power for renegotiation in the hands of IPP's.
To give you an example, instead of focusing efforts on indigenous sources of electricity like Thar lignite to limit the import of oil and gas which has resulted in billions of dollars in foreign exchange lost, making the country vulnerable to blockades and limiting our retaliatory capabilities against those nations investing in India these IPP's focused their efforts on building power plants that largely run on imported natural gas and coal.
For years the state has known IPP's are ripping off the country but despite this fact the government of Pakistan signed long term agreements with the same IPP's. Furthermore, the debt of these projects are paid for by the public through the tariffs they pay and even if you didn't want to buy the electricity it doesn't matter you still have to pay for the capacity (i.e. capacity factor).
https://www.geo.tv/latest/224559-agreements-with-ipps-are-a-noose-around-our-necks-cjp
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/ipps-rake-in-billions-from-consumers.615579/
There's so much I can go on about this but suffice it to say CPEC is based largely on fraud, it isn't what the public has been lead to believe.
