Convoy of Chinese Engineers Attacked at Pakistan Hub of CCP’s Belt and Road Initiative

Pakistani naval personnel stand guard near a ship carrying containers at the Gwadar port, some 700 kilometers west of Karachi, during the opening ceremony of a pilot trade programme between Pakistan and China, on Nov. 13, 2016. Aamir Quereshi/AFP via Getty Images

A convoy carrying Chinese citizens was attacked on Sunday near the port of Gwadar in Balochistan, Pakistan, said the Chinese Embassy in Karachi. The embassy claimed no casualties on the Chinese side.

Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants claimed responsibility for the attack that killed four Chinese workers and nine Pakistani soldiers, reported the AFP news agency.

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement that “two terrorists were sent to hell with no harm to any military or civil persons.”

Baloch separatists frequently exaggerate their battlefield successes, while the Pakistan military’s public relations department also plays down attacks, or delays reporting them, AFP reported.

Chinese Workers Targeted

The Chinese Embassy urged Pakistani authorities to investigate, punish, and take measures against the attackers to prevent similar incidents from happening again, according to an official statement.

Chinese media confirmed the attack on a convoy of four bullet-proof vehicles carrying 23 Chinese workers, and the following anti-terrorist acts of the Pakistan military killed two terrorists and injured two soldiers.

The attack has again raised the alarm for Chinese workers involved in Beijing’s massive strategic infrastructure plan, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), on foreign soil.

In the past, various Baloch separatist groups have claimed attacks on projects linked to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, with thousands of security personnel deployed to counter threats against Beijing’s interests.

The CPEC project is the cornerstone of Beijing’s massive BRI and seeks to link China’s western Xinjiang province to Gwadar port in Balochistan, Pakistan’s least populous province but which is rich in mineral resources.

Pakistani and Chinese workers sit on an excavator as they leave the newly built tunnel in northern Pakistan's Gojal Valley, on Sept. 25, 2015. The project is part of China's ambitious One Belt, One Road initiative. Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

China’s port development in Gwadar, located on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, shows the strategic significance of Gwadar port to the regime’s growing naval ambitions.

Once a small fishing town, Gwadar is currently in the process of becoming an international port city under the development of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Some researchers believe that externally Gwadar serves the CCP as a secure and reliable access to the strategic space and resources of the northern Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

Internally, Gwadar offers Beijing commercial linkages between western China, Pakistan, and Central Asia to promote economic growth and manage perceived risks to social stability in Xinjiang.

Balochistan has seen a decades-long insurgency against what separatists call the unfair exploitation of resources in the mineral-rich province.

In November 2018, the BLA claimed responsibility for an attack on the Chinese Consulate in the upmarket Clifton area.

“We have been seeing the Chinese as an oppressor, along with Pakistani forces,” a spokesman for the group told AFP.

According to a 2021 report by the Council on Foreign Relations, the CCP has manipulated the BRI as a tool to address a number of domestic issues, such as closing the gap between the country’s affluent coastal cities and its impoverished interior, and absorbing excess manufacturing capacity.

Subsequently, it has routinely resulted in unfair competition to local businesses in the host country. An examination of the contractors participating in Chinese-funded projects shows that 89 percent are Chinese companies, said the report.

Zhang Ting contributed to this report.