Change Is Coming: China Is Accelerating Its Plan For A Military Base In Pakistan

Authored by Lawrence Sellin, op-ed via The Daily Caller,

On January 1, 2018, The Daily Caller published information - later confirmed in two separate reports, here and here - about a plan for a Chinese military base on the Jiwani peninsula in Pakistan, near Gwadar, a sea port critical to the success of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

According to noted national security correspondent Bill Gertz:

“Plans for the base were advanced during a visit to Jiwani on Dec. 18 by a group of 16 Chinese People’s Liberation Army officers who met with about 10 Pakistani military officers.”

“The Chinese also asked the Pakistanis to undertake a major upgrade of Jiwani airport so the facility will be able to handle large Chinese military aircraft. Work on the airport improvements is expected to begin in July.”

Sources now say the plan has been accelerated. Upgrade of the Jiwani airport is already underway. In addition, procedures are being formulated for the relocation of the local population to make way for Chinese military and other support personnel. The sensitivity and importance of this issue to China and Pakistan cannot be overstated. After the disclosures and the expected denials from both Islamabad and Beijing, Pakistani officials, as early as January 5, 2018, launched a leak investigation and it was jointly decided to advance the schedule for the Jiwani base.

Strategically, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is their roadmap to geopolitical dominance. It is soft power with an underlying hard power, military component, the so-called “String of Pearls” bases and facilities.

A Chinese military base on the Jiwani peninsula will complement the Chinese base in Djibouti, which became operational in 2017. Both are located at strategic choke points. The Djibouti base is near the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, while the Jiwani base will be within easy reach of the Strait of Hormuz, a combination, not only capable of dominating vital sea lanes in the Arabian Sea, but boxing-in U.S bases in the Persian Gulf and outflanking the U.S. naval facility on Diego Garcia.

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 and after its acquisition of a 40-year lease of the Pakistani port of Gwadar. There are also continuing Chinese diplomatic efforts to gain access to the Maldives.

All of the above represent elements of China’s “String of Pearls” bases to secure military dominance of the maritime component of BRI.

In addition to explicit economic and military moves, China is planning a fiber optic network to control the flow of information and is mapping the northern Indian Ocean seabed, potentially for a SOSUS-like system to monitor maritime traffic and control a fleet of subsurface drones.

While the United States is tinkering with counterinsurgency policy and nation building in Afghanistan, there are seismic strategic changes taking place in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.

It is senseless to continue an unsuccessful, costly and exhaustive approach in Afghanistan, which not only places our forces at an equivalent tactical level to the Taliban, but allows Pakistan to regulate the operational tempo and the supply of our troops.

Instead, the U.S. should be moving toward a policy that shifts the burden of Afghanistan stability to the regional players who have thwarted our efforts there and adopt a strategy that exploits our technological advantages to counter growing Chinese sophistication and ambition through augmented U.S. naval and air power projection and the selective use of covert, special operations and cyber warfare operations.

The foremost regional problem is to have a workable plan to secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, which is growing more dangerous because of its expanding tactical nuclear weapons program.

The United States is not without strategic options to disrupt Chinese hegemony. The linchpin of BRI is CPEC. Pakistan’s main vulnerability remains ethnic separatism, which was largely the reason Pakistan adopted a program of Islamization in the late 1970s. Pakistan is the Yugoslavia of South Asia with the Pakistani province of Punjab as the equivalent of Serbia, when that country pursued an expansionist policy in the 1990s.

For example, BRI cannot succeed without CPEC and CPEC cannot succeed without a subservient Balochistan, a province with a festering insurgency that was once independent and secular before it was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan. Balochistan is also where Pakistan maintains a significant Taliban infrastructure and provides safe haven to its Quetta Shura leaders.

There clearly needs to be a sense of urgency applied to this challenge because current U.S. policy in Afghanistan is about to be overtaken by events.

An American withdrawal from Afghanistan will only be a humiliating defeat if the United States is forced into strategic retreat because we do not have a plan in place to address the changing regional conditions.

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Comments

JimmyJones Nekoti Sat, 03/03/2018 - 21:50 Permalink

This is the new alignment, US, Indian, vs China Pakistan. I bet Russia sides with the US in the next 3 or 4 years. Europe is going to have some major internal issues.

Watch how much money flows into India over the next decade, it's going to be huge.

In reply to by Nekoti

Zero Point ZENDOG Sat, 03/03/2018 - 21:00 Permalink

Duh, no shit it's a waste fuckhead. But calling it sitting on your hands is fucking idiotic. Those hands are very, very busy, and saying different is stupid to the point of dangerous. It also shows the mental gymnastics you're going through, to say that China doing similar things is positive and "active". It's just as big a waste, and just as fuckin stupid, just on a monumentally smaller scale.

In reply to by ZENDOG

DillyDilly Sat, 03/03/2018 - 20:29 Permalink

All those Chinese & Pakistani 'white faced' jews must have to work double overtime to fool GOY these days...

 

I'm glad I'm just a simple 'unworthy' asshole...

RedBaron616 Sat, 03/03/2018 - 20:30 Permalink

"The United States is not without strategic options to disrupt Chinese hegemony."

Yes, no doubt the MIC needs to be feed more. How predictable. Let the Chinese have Pakistan. They can have Afghanistan as well. Why should we care? Not OUR problem!

refill6times Sat, 03/03/2018 - 20:35 Permalink

So... 500 yrs later, whos the new Khan?

Why does all this nation building happen en-camera?

Who has the balls?

Who has the personal nerve and conviction to convince a people to follow his desires and dreams in totality?

 

Who are the Pyramid Builders of today?

Who can drive humans to do that which they themselves cannot do themselves?

Those that built the wall that has lasted thousands of years had no idea of its purpose, only the task.

 

That is why it is called Great.

 

Today, we are weak, poor, hopeless.  Aimless.

 

Send us another Khan.

 

ZangotheMagnificent1 Sat, 03/03/2018 - 20:36 Permalink

Jee  ... ANOTHER "roadmap to geopolitical dominance" paranoia. BOO! US surrounding Russia with micro states. BOO! BOO! China Sea dominance by China. Meanwhile the real win is the profits being earned by US and European and Asia companies. THAT'S the game that counts.

veritas semper… Sat, 03/03/2018 - 20:40 Permalink

China already owns one very important Paki port,Gwadar.

In 2015, it was announced that the city and port would be further developed under CPEC at a cost of $1.62 billion,[4] with the aim of linking northern Pakistan and western China to the deep water seaport.[5] The port will also be the site of a floating liquefied natural gas facility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar-Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project.[6] Construction began in June 2016 on the Gwadar Special Economic Zone, which is being built on 2,292 acre site adjacent to Gwadar's port.[7] In late 2015, the port was officially leased to China for 43 years, until 2059

ALL on OBOR project.

And .... gasp....this is the port that JUSA uses for supply lines for Afghanistan.

See how this works ,kids?

We can expect lots and lots of dead US mercenaries,sorry,soldiers . After 17 years of US illegal occupation and war in Afghanistan ,for NO REASON (well ,apart from stopping TAPI pipeline,poppies and heroin,opposing OBOR, opening a front against Iran ,from the North)

Do you understand now US desperation? And recent increases in troops? And declaring Pakistan as terrorist sponsor? (when Pakistan was our ally ,it was not a terrorist sponsor)

Kagemusho Sat, 03/03/2018 - 20:50 Permalink

The Chinese are following the old Roman General Fabius's modus operandi to a 'T'. Go slow, out-flank, then box-in. Only they're doing it on a  planetary scale. And they just might succeed.

That is, if their own debt bubble bursting doesn't cause an economic collapse at home and lead to one abroad. This is as much desperation as it is hubris.

booty_malone Sat, 03/03/2018 - 20:54 Permalink

China can start being the world police in the islamic world as they have lots of excess men.  How long will it take for body bags to start heading to China from Paki?

Captain Nemo d… Sat, 03/03/2018 - 21:24 Permalink

The Chinese move into Pakistan is a welcome one. It will ensure Pakistan does not become a full-blown fanatic country and may even become less so after working in close contact with the Communists. To those who say it is already a full-blown fanatic country, note that in all these years it has not raised a peep about Xinjiang. In fact it has used its position in the religion to actually provide cover to China by supporting their position. It has also moved uncharacteristically fast whenever the locals have attacked any Chinese, or Chinese interests. Hehehe.

 

Able Ape Sat, 03/03/2018 - 21:33 Permalink

Well, the US has spent Trillions in areas across the world and hasn't got so much as a kewpie doll to show for it.  If that isn't stupidity writ large, I don't know what is!... Of course the MIC has profited handsomely while the general populace gets left holding the bag yet cheers loudly, "USA, USA..." - not exactly indicative of a stellar IQ...