With the rapid development of China’s economy, a large number of import and export trades, especially energy imports, are heavily dependent on maritime transportation. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, in 2020, despite the economic slowdown affected by the epidemic, China still imports 5 More than 100 million tons of oil, an increase of 7.3% year-on-year, has created a record high, and its dependence on foreign oil has exceeded 70%. The cargo and energy transportation line from the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean bears the burden of China’s total annual oil imports. 80%. In 2020, China’s total import and export trade will exceed 32 trillion yuan, and a considerable part of this region will also be transported by commodity goods.

The Strait of Malacca is one of the 16 world throat passages that must be controlled by the U.S. global strategic plan. In addition to U.S. military power around the region, India is also watching. From a geostrategic point of view, China imports oil from the Middle East. The route of more than 10,000 kilometers is actually a relatively fragile and threatened transport artery. If one day there is a tension in international or regional relations, this energy transport line will easily get stuck, which will seriously affect it. To the stability of the country and economic development.

With the Gwadar Port, oil from the Middle East and North Africa can go ashore directly from Gwadar Port to Kashgar in Xinjiang by land without going through Malacca and the Indian Ocean. The transportation distance has also been greatly shortened to more than 2,000 kilometers, so it can be maximized. China's energy security is guaranteed to a certain degree. For the same reason, the export goods of China and Pakistan can also reach the Middle East, Africa, Europe and other places through this route.

Gwadar port becomes an important node

The Gwadar Port and China’s investment in Myanmar’s Kyaukphyu Port, Malaysia’s Royal Capital Port, Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port and other projects and their supporting projects are similar in terms of ensuring China’s energy security. Putting them in different baskets plays a role in spreading risks. Therefore, the construction of Gwadar Port has a positive strategic significance for enhancing my country's economic and energy security.

The development of Gwadar Port has also been twists and turns, and it has been a lot of trouble. The first U.S. company Uncol planned to build an oil pipeline with a total length of more than 1,400 kilometers to connect Turkmenistan’s Atlabad oil field and Gwadar Port, so that Gwadar Port can be used. The oil was transported by sea. As a result, Russia bought the Atlas oil field for its own benefit. Uncol had to give up. In 1998, Pakistan wanted to sell the port to the US Forbes. However, the content of the agreement harmed Pakistan’s The national interest has therefore been opposed by all parties in the country, and the result is also nothing.

In the following year, Pakistani President Musharraf proposed to China to invite China to build Gwadar Port. From 2002 to 2005, China invested US$200 million to complete the first phase of the Gwadar Port and completed three 5 The berth for 10,000-ton container ships, the port throughput is 100,000 standard containers per year. However, when the second-phase construction and operation of the port was tendered in 2007, it was intercepted by the Port of Singapore Authority. The latter was granted a long lease. Up to 40 years of operating rights.

The reason why Singapore wants to jump out of the spoiler is also very simple. It is worried that with the Gwadar Port, China will drastically reduce the volume of freight through the Strait of Malacca, thereby harming its economic interests and shaking its status as an international trade center. Based on this Purpose, the Port of Singapore Authority is not very concerned about port operations. In the few years of its operation, the port has only docked more than 10 cargo ships, and if the port is to fully function, it also needs large-scale pipelines, transportation and other infrastructures. Pakistan simply cannot afford the construction. Therefore, in 2013, the Pakistani government, which could not bear it, announced the abandonment of the contract and handed over the management rights of the port to China Overseas Port Holdings Co., Ltd., and then Pakistan gave all of the port free zone in 2015. The land use right was handed over to the Chinese company and the lease term was 43 years.

Since then, the construction of Gwadar Port and the Port Free Zone has accelerated, which has laid a solid foundation for China and Pakistan to carry out broader and closer trade cooperation. The two countries officially launched the grand "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Plan" in 2015. The plan starts from Gwadar Port in the south to Kashgar in Xinjiang in the north, with a straight-line distance of more than 3,000 kilometers, connecting many major cities in Pakistan. The plan can not only accelerate the economic construction and development of western Pakistan, but also organically connect the "Silk Road Economic Belt" in Central Asia and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" in Southeast Asia. Economic ties and the realization of common prosperity are of extremely important significance.

At the same time, China’s Xinjiang Kashgar has also changed from a geographical inland city to an economic frontier special zone. With the deepening of cooperation between China and Pakistan, and the continuous improvement of various service functions of the Kashgar Economic Development Zone Kashgar will also inherit and continue the influence and glory of the ancient Silk Road and become a logistics center and economic and trade center with international influence and diversified development serving my country and Central Asia. Development will also greatly promote.

Mutual benefit and win-win

The construction of Gwadar Port is a mutually beneficial and win-win project for both China and Pakistan. The cooperation between the two sides around the Gwadar Port Free Zone and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will become a new growth engine for Pakistan’s economy, which can help Pakistan, especially the poor. The backward Balochistan province has brought faster economic development and more job opportunities.

At present, the two sides are jointly building Gwadar New International Airport, 300MW coal-fired power station, Gwadar Smart Port City, Dongwan Expressway, Sinotruk Automobile City and other projects. Dozens of companies from the two countries have settled in Gwadar Port Free Zone. Since 2018, COSCO SHIPPING has also opened the Middle East Express (KGS) including Gwadar Port, and established a commercial route connecting Gwadar Port with major ports in the world, greatly improving Gwadar Port’s presence in South Asia. Shipping status.

The Secretary-General of the Pakistan Investment Commission, Farreha Mazar, stated in September 2021 that China and Pakistan are jointly negotiating to advance various investment projects. Among them, Chinese companies plan to invest US$15 billion in Pakistan’s petrochemical industry, including those from Gwadar. In addition to the energy pipeline project from Hong Kong to Xinjiang, China has also assisted in the construction of a desalination plant with a daily output of 5,000 tons of fresh water in Gwadar Port, Faqul Primary School, China-Pakistan Boai Medical Emergency Center, vocational technical school, and women’s employment. With the joint efforts of the two sides, a modern port and industrial park has been erected on this previously desolate western coastline. Gwadar Port’s status as a regional shipping and business and trade hub has begun to take shape.

As a flagship project of the One Belt One Road, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor plan is also in full swing and has entered a stage of high-quality development. Completed around the year, the total cost of the various projects will reach 45 billion US dollars, of which more than 20 projects in the first phase have been completed, and nearly 30 projects in the second phase have also started in 2020. These projects cover industrial, Transportation, agriculture, people's livelihood, energy, education and many other fields.

With the gradual deepening of the Belt and Road cooperation between countries and the full spread of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor construction project, the Gwadar Port will continue to expand in the future and will eventually achieve the goal of annual cargo throughput of more than 300 million tons. It will be 10 times the annual cargo throughput of Karachi Port, the largest port in Pakistan. By then, Gwadar will become an important logistics, trade, industrial and technological center of Pakistan. With the geographical advantage of neighboring Middle East, the infrastructure of Gwadar Port After further improvement, it may become an international duty-free storage area, so that Pakistan can better take advantage of its location and become a cargo transit hub and geo-economic center adjacent to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Gulf countries.

From a dilapidated small fishing village to a renewed shipping hub, today’s Gwadar Port is full of vitality. Facing this huge and magnificent blueprint for construction, it is not difficult to find that whether it is friendship, sincerity, ability and courage, Looking at the world, only China can help Pakistan to do this. And unlike Western countries’ profit-seeking mentality, China demonstrates the mind and responsibility of a responsible power. The starting point of aid is that it is better to teach it to fish than to teach it to fish. , That is, through equal consultation, complementary advantages, and mutual benefit, to finally achieve the win-win goal of common development, common progress, and common prosperity for all. Just as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said, China, led by Gwadar Port Practical cooperation in the Pakistan Economic Corridor will bring much-needed energy, infrastructure and industrial cooperation to Pakistan, and bring tangible benefits to the Pakistani people. The help and efforts from China have caused significant changes in Gwadar Port. Keywords: One Belt One Road News, One Belt One Road Project, Overseas Projects

The significance of building Gwadar Port is not only energy security, but more importantly, it will further consolidate the achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Maritime Silk Road. It will also weaken the ability of individual ambitious countries to control the region and want to use oil to contain them. China's development attempts, and therefore the construction of Gwadar Port, will also have a subtle and far-reaching impact on the world structure. (Please indicate www.seetao.com for reprinting) See Tao.com, editor of the Belt and Road column / Xu Ning, Design / Zhang Tao