Speaker:

Mr Muan Lim
Chair
Advisory Board of the Centre for Asian Business and Economics
Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne

Date & Time:

Wednesday, 28 May 2025
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm (Singapore Time)

On-Site Venue:

469A Bukit Timah Rd, #06-01 Tower Block, Singapore 259770

Registration is required:

Please click here and indicate if you are joining in person: https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mqMlPEoyRWivv6_E_yjqyQ

Synopsis:

This seminar reinterprets China’s investment in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with a focus on Gwadar Port, through the lens of strategic latency and long-horizon statecraft. It challenges the dominant “debt-trap diplomacy” narrative, asserting that China’s engagement reflects not coercive lending practices but a calculated strategy of geopolitical optionality. Despite Gwadar’s limited commercial throughput, the port’s strategic value lies in its convertibility into dual-use infrastructure under conditions of regional stress.

The seminar examines Gwadar’s financing model using AidData records, trade and debt figures, and comparative historical analogies. It shows that China’s lending terms remain broadly concessional, with no evidence of asset seizure or debt distress. The port’s underperformance is reframed not as failure but as latent strategic positioning—providing both China and Pakistan with redundancy against maritime chokepoints and a fallback platform amid Indo-Pacific naval competition.

By situating CPEC within China’s broader doctrine of techno-containment resilience, the seminar contributes to current debates on economic statecraft, dual-use infrastructure, and the global normalisation of strategic industrial policy. It also highlights convergences between China’s long-horizon approach and emerging trends in Western infrastructure strategy.