After bringing a rail line close to the Indian border with Tibet, China is now gearing to push a rail link across the Karakorams into Pakistan through the Gilgit-Baltistan region that is part of the original state of Jammu and Kashmir.
As the first rail link across the Great Himalayas, the line running nearly 700 km from the historic Kashgar city in Xinjiang province to Havelian near Rawalpindi in northern Pakistan through the Khunjerab Pass will transform the geopolitics of western China. China also has plans to expand its rail links into Nepal and Myanmar.
According reports from Pakistan, Beijing and Islamabad are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding for a feasibility study on the rail project during the visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to China starting on Tuesday. The idea of a railway line that would link landlocked Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea has been under discussion for some years.
Back in 2007, China and Pakistan had signed a pact to conduct a preliminary investigation into the viability of the project. Chinese has completed a study on a rail project that must cross one of the most challenging terrains in the world.
If the two sides take the political decision to go ahead with the project during the visit of Zardari, a consortium of Chinese companies are likely to be constituted to explore the engineering and financial aspects of the project. China and Pakistan are also likely to approach various international lenders for financial assistance.
While the technical aspects of the trans-Karakoram rail link are indeed daunting, there is no denying the Chinese audacity in embracing difficult projects that are grand in conception and consequential in their impact.
Even before China had become rich, the People's Liberation Army had built at great cost the Karakoram highway between Xinjiang and Pakistan in the 1970s. The self-assurance of Chinese engineers and the geopolitical ambition of its security establishment has grown manifold since then.
India has traditionally objected to Chinese presence in the areas of J&K that are under Pakistan's control including the Karakoram highway. In recent years, India had renewed its protests as Chinese economic activity in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan has rapidly increased.
While India's objections have not much impact on either China or Pakistan, other developments have cast a shadow over some of the trans-Karakoram projects. The unstable terrain of the Karakorams meant frequent landslides and the formation of artificial lakes that undermine the KKH and associated road networks.
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