the Chinese Communist Party loves

Pakistan'sprime beachfront property.

Welcome back to China Uncensored.

I'm Chris Chappell.

This is Gwadar.

It used to be a sleepy fishing town

on the coast of Pakistan.

But over the past several years,

with Chinese investment

of hundreds of millions of dollars… …this once a sleepy fishing town

has morphed into a deep-sea port …

…and a giant gateway for trade.

Now controlled by the Chinese regime.

Ah, progress.

The state-owned China Overseas Ports Holding Company Limited,

or COPHC, “has proudly taken over”

and will be calling the shots

for the next 40 years.

The port, Gwadar,

is near the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

That area—the Strait of Hormuz—

is a key shipping route.

About 20% of the world's oil

flows through there,

plus a huge quantity of regular cargo.

Gwadar is especially important to China

because it connects the western part of China

to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.

And that gives China easier access to

the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The port is a lynchpin linking land and sea

in Xi Jinping's One Belt One Road Initiative.

One Belt One Road is a network

of trade corridors that connect

China with the rest of the world

and make it easier for China

to acquire raw materials,

export Chinese goods,

and project its influence across the globe.

The trillion dollar One Belt One Road

is marketed as the “new silk road,”

a purely economic initiative

meant to evoke a romantic age

where silk flowed west

along ancient trade routes.

Only now, instead of silk,

it's cheap plastic toys.

The Chinese Communist Party insists

that One Belt One Road is about

peace and prosperity.

But not everybody is so sure.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies,

a think tank, points to

the “string of pearls” theory.

The “string of pearls” is the idea that

China plans to develop a string of military bases

along the Indian Ocean to support

extended naval missions

and expand its military reach.

The report says that even if China

doesn't establish naval outposts directly,

by investing in trade-related infrastructure

around the world,

China is creating places

“with Chinese characteristics.”

These are locations that can serve

as support for the Chinese Navy,

but technically let China say

they're not expanding military bases.

“What, us expand our military?

No!

We want 'prosperity for all—

not global hegemony.'”

But, places with Chinese characteristics

would still “affect the security calculus

of India and the US in the region,

as well as set a precedent,

potentially for application in Europe.”

In other words,

these places could give

the Chinese Communist Party

similar advantages to having military bases,

but the Party gets to deny

that they're military bases.

So they can call the military “string of pearls”

part of their trade corridor.

But in Pakistan, China is bold enough

to call a spade a spade.

At least that's what two separate reports claim—

from the South China Morning Post

and the Washington Times.

China is building a joint naval

and air base for Chinese forces,

just a short distance up the coast from—

you guessed it—

the port of Gwadar that they now control.

Sources “familiar with the deal” say

a group of Chinese People's Liberation Army officers

met with Pakistani military officials in December

and hammered out a deal that would see

the port of Jiwani,

about 15 miles away from Gwadar,

become a Chinese military base.

It would have  a small airfield be upgraded

to “handle large Chinese military aircraft.”

And it might also require the forced relocation

of “scores of residents living in the area.”

Don't worry, the Chinese regime

is very skilled at forced relocations.

They're scheduled to break ground

for the base in Jiwani this July.

Jiwani will be China's second offshore military base.

Its first offshore military base

was launched last year—

in the small,

hilarious African nation of Djibouti.

The former Foreign Secretary of India,

Kanwal Sibal, is not surprised.

He predicted it back in 2014,

when China was getting

extra chummy with Pakistan

over the mega-port in Gwadar.

He wrote that “China will, inevitably,

follow up with its commercial footholds

in the Indian Ocean with naval ones.”

It's not always great to be right.

Ok, it usually is.

Retired US Army Reserve Colonel Lawrence Sellin

writes that China's Jiwani base

a sign of “Chinese militarisation

of Pakistan, in particular,

and in the Indian Ocean.”

He said the combination of Chinese military bases

in Djibouti and Pakistan would “not only [be]

capable of dominating vital sea lanes

in the Arabian Sea,

but boxing-in U.S bases

in the Persian Gulf”

and outflanking the US navy.

And the retired Colonel warns that

more Chinese military expansion

could be on the way,

using what he calls

“debt-trap” tactics.

That's when the Chinese regime

lends you tons of money.

And then when you can't pay it off,

they offer to forgive the debt in exchange

for strategic infrastructure

or natural resources.

It's like borrowing money

you can't pay back

from your friendly neighborhood loan shark.

Except instead of breaking your legs,

he makes you lease him your legs

for 99 years.

Like what the Chinese Communist Party

did in Sri Lanka.

“There is concern that the Chinese

will transform its 99-year lease

of the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota

into another naval base,

the exact 'debt-trap' method

the Chinese used in Djibouti.”

So then the Party would have a naval base

right off the southeast coast of India.

To match its new Pakistani military base,

which is just to the west of India.

India is not happy.

Especially because they've seen what happens

when China builds bases,

sorry, islands,

in the South China Sea.

So what do you think about China's plans

to build a military base in Pakistan?

Leave your comments below.

Once again, I'm your host, Chris Chappell.

See you next time.

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