With most of industrial China on the eastern side, I wonder how beneficial will this trade route be, to China.
(Of course, facilitating trade is of secondary importance to the geopolitical aim of gaining influence in Pakistan by making it more dependent on Chinese money and less dependent on western capital markets or western multilateral organisations.)
Anything that gets China more positively engaged with the rest of the world is good, because it makes China more interested in international stability, property rights and the rule of law. Eventually I think China will come to realize that, as a major investor and driver of economic development around the world, their interests align very closely with those of the west.
This is such a crucial point. No one in the world needs an unstable, angsty nuclear-armed state.
>think China will come to realize that, as a major investor and driver of economic development around the world, their interests align
I think China realized long ago that being prosperous while having hungry neighbors on its doorstep is not really conducive to regional peace. They actually prop up NK exactly for this reason I believe.