CPEC and the rise of militancy in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- The decade of economic collaboration between Islamabad and Beijing via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has had a significant impact on security dynamics within Pakistan, say analysts and officials.

This includes a potential role in fueling the Islamist insurgency in Pakistan.

A variety of national and transnational militant groups have stepped up their attacks on the Chinese and Pakistani governments during the 10 years of CPEC, a Pakistani component of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

These groups include the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria"'s Khorasan branch (ISIS-K).

Beijing's mistreatment of Muslims in Xinjiang and the growth of Chinese influence in Pakistan have fuelled anti-China sentiment that militant groups are exploiting, said an Islamabad-based counter-terrorism official.

"For the Pakistani government, which faces terrorism challenges already, ensuring the security of Chinese nationals during the CPEC's 10 years was a significant challenge," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It is difficult for Pakistani law enforcement agencies to protect Chinese nationals who are working in remote areas on CPEC-linked projects," the official said.

While both governments hail CPEC as a crowning jewel in Beijing's BRI, many residents say China's promises of prosperity and lucrative development for Pakistan turned out to be a pack of lies.

Deadly attacks on Chinese nationals

Beijing blamed the TTP for a deadly July 2021 suicide attack on a bus carrying Chinese engineers in the vicinity of Dasu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that killed nine of the engineers.

The TTP previously claimed responsibility for an April 2021 bombing at a luxury hotel in Quetta that was hosting the Chinese ambassador. The Chinese delegation was not present when the bomb detonated.

Last December, ISIS-K, an ISIS offshoot for Pakistan and Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for a bombing and shooting at a hotel frequented by Chinese diplomats and businessmen in the centre of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

In June 2017, ISIS-K claimed the killing of two Chinese tutors after kidnapping them from Quetta.

Al-Qaeda-linked groups like the TTP and ISIS-K know that anti-China sentiments run high among Pakistani Muslims because of Beijing's abuse of Uighur Muslims, according to Peshawar-based religious scholar Allama Younas Khalil.

"It is the reason that anti-China rhetoric has grown considerably in jihadi circles," Khalil said.

"Similar to the Baloch and Sindhi separatist groups, Islamist militant groups are criticising the CPEC and comparing it to the colonial British East India Co. of the 1850s and attacking Chinese interests in Pakistan," he said.

Anti-China sentiments increasing

Groups like the TTP and ISIS-K are exploiting anti-China sentiment arising from Beijing's oppression of Uighurs and Muslim groups as well as Chinese companies' disrespect for Islam, warn security analysts.

In recent years, the Chinese government has been cracking down on Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the western region of Xinjiang under the pretext of quelling insurgency linked to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

Beijing has blamed ETIM for "terrorist attacks" regularly as it justifies its measures in Xinjiang, where rights groups say that more than a million Muslims are incarcerated in indoctrination camps.

But scholars say the Chinese regime has produced little evidence that ETIM is an organised group or that it is to blame for attacks in Xinjiang, which separatists call East Turkestan.

An April report by the European Eye on Radicalisation observed that ISIS-K has expanded its China-focused propaganda to highlight Beijing's abuse of and atrocities against Uighur Muslims.

ISIS-K accuses China of carrying out systematic genocide and massacre of Uighurs living in Xinjiang and turning the entire province into a mass jail, said the report.