The Karakoram Highway, between Pakistan and China, is an amazing engineering achievement.
The cartoonist and author Ted Rall has visited Central Asia many times.
The cartoonist and author Ted Rall has visited Central Asia many times.
Here's a partial list of projects being funded in Pakistan by China.[2] China's government seems determined to get a land linkup to Europe. Yet this isn't the main "New Silk Road" route - that's further north, through Iran and Iraq.[3] With all the wars in that area, China apparently sees a need to have multiple alternate routes for trade. Good thinking in Beijing.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_of_the_Karakora... [2] http://boi.gov.pk/userfiles1/file/List%20of%20MoUs.docx [3] http://www.xinhuanet.com/silkroad/english/index.htm
If it would be economically viable to have the same thing manufactured in Xinjiang or Qinghai, and shipped by road, it would be a huge boost for those areas. Especially if linked through Pakistan's road network to sea ports, bringing easy access to Middle East, Europe, Africa as ships would no longer have to navigate via Singapore.
An in reverse, it would be a huge diversification of import routes for commodities could come in via another route. Not oil specifically, but all kinds of bulk. Bulk carries of commodities are far less efficient than oil ships, the largest with a capacity of 100,000 tons but 30-60k capacity more common (far less than the capacity of a supertanker). So commodities needed to develop the west of China now have a simpler, more efficient route.
The KKH has greatly helped reduced the poverty and its a vital resource for us and all the remote communities.
"Violence has been a part of life here since Pakistan and India were partitioned in 1947" >> absolutely wrong , its started after US started funding Taliban after late 90s and now its completely peaceful.
"the signs of the cheapness of life are everywhere—starving children and maimed old men line the sidewalks" >> there is poverty but not that much as forcefully describe here.
"more than 10,000 people have been shot, bombed and lynched there during the ‘90s alone" >> Ask who was behind it ? and you will get name , who funded cold-war, .. just the same b.s again ..
"A stone’s throw from the Line of Control between Pakistani- and Indian-held Kashmir" >> I dont have any good words, there is not a single place where we are so exposed to LOC crossfire.It could be Kashmir but not Gilgit-Baltistan(GB).
Lots of lies and biased commentary .. take it with grain of salt.
I am pretty sure Ted Rall will agree with you that meddling from foreign empires, like the US, causes violence in Central Asia.