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Book Review: Siegfried O. Wolf, The China-Pakistan

Economic Corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative:
Concept, Context and Assessment

Article  in  South Asia Research · February 2020

DOI: 10.1177/0262728019893125

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Book Reviews 147

moneylenders. Very soon, many original farmers cultivating their own hereditary land
(khudkasht rayats) had lost their land to these moneylenders and became hopelessly
indebted. No physiocratic or utilitarian philosophy could save them.

Chittabrata Palit
Institute of Historical Studies, Kolkata, India
e-mail: chittabratapalit@gmail.com

Siegfried O. Wolf, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative:
Concept, Context and Assessment (Cham: Springer, 2020), xvii + 395 pp.
DOI: 10.1177/0262728019893125

This book by the director of research at the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF), a
Brussels-based think tank and senior researcher at the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg
University, focuses on the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This is the
first book-length study on the CPEC. The background is that China’s average annual
GDP growth rate slowed from 10.6 per cent in 2010 to 6.6 per cent in 2018 so that
the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was devised as a global strategy, launched in 2013
by China’s current president, Xi Jinping. The BRI has been depicted as an ambitious
vision to expand Beijing’s investment and trade ties with some 65 other countries that
collectively cover two-thirds of the world’s population. The intent of China through
BRI as the centrepiece of China’s international relations and business strategy is to
promote connectivity in five key areas: policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity,
trade facilitation, financial cooperation and people-to-people contacts. China has an
ambitious plan to establish a total of six economic corridors (ECs) and the CPEC, one
of the most significant corridors under the BRI, is viewed as a flagship project between
China and Pakistan (Ahmed, 2018). Intense interest in the CPEC was stimulated when
US$46 billion of investment agreements were signed in April 2015, a sum which two
years later increased to US$62 billion (Garlick, 2018).
The book consists of 10 chapters. The introduction provides a background overview
of connectivity gaps in South Asia from the geopolitical and economic perspectives of
the BRI. Wolf notes that ‘Asia in general and South Asia, in particular, are affected by
a tremendous lack of connectivity’ (p. 2). He argues that since South Asia is one of the
least economically integrated regions in the world, the ECs under the BRI framework
would serve as a means to increase connectivity, enhance the economic performance
of participating countries and accelerate regional cooperation and integration. Wolf
outlines the genesis of China–Pakistan relations and then details the research questions,
structure and methodology of the book. His work is based on several years of substantial
research, interviews with officials, subject-matter experts, a diverse spectrum of civil
society representatives, politicians and business community leaders in Europe, China
and Pakistan between 2015 and 2018 (p. 19).

South Asia Research  Vol. 40(1): 137–155

148 South Asia Research  Vol. 40(1): 137–155

The second chapter elaborates the elements of the proposed conceptual framework
regarding the ECs, providing a lucid analysis of numerous key indicators and
characteristics of ECs, including the conceptualised geographical framework, identified
growth zones, established special economic zones, internal-external connectivity, as well
concerns of ecological and environmental awareness. The third and fourth chapters
analyse the Chinese and Pakistani motivations for the CPEP, respectively. These two
chapters (pp. 47–91) comprehensively explain the economic, political, security and
geo-strategic factors involved in the implementation of the CPEC.
Chapter 5 identifies the challenges for implementation and functioning of the
CPEC. Since both China and Pakistan have unresolved border disputes with their
neighbouring countries, involving also Jammu and Kashmir, Wolf argues that
‘[u]nderstanding the territorial disputes involved is fundamental for a successful
implementation of the CPEC in the short run as well as for its smooth functioning in
the long run’ (p. 96). Similar apprehensions have been expressed by other observers.
For instance, Blah (2018: 313) notes that the expanding role of Beijing especially
in South Asia has made India apprehensive. China has ignored India’s concerns and
contentions on the CPEC, which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK).
The chapter also explains a plethora of issues including the Baluchistan factor, the
Uyghur conflict and the global Jihadist movement and terrorism. Wolf also mentions
several important sources of threat to the CPEC emanating from Pakistan’s internal
problems of unhealthy civil-military relations, the Islamisation of state and society,
reactionary feudal structures, political radicalisation and violence, political struggles,
inefficient bureaucracy, corruption and lack of good governance and human resources
(pp. 114–23). There are endless discussions and much confusion regarding especially
the setting-up of 37 special economic zones in Pakistan. It is anticipated that the
industrialisation of backward areas such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan,
Baluchistan and rural Sindh would face resistance by local entrepreneurs from Punjab
and Karachi, who perceive such advances as an additional challenge to their business
interests (p. 132).
Wolf also provides a lucid assessment in terms of selected indicators and criteria
for CPEC developments in Chapter 6 (pp. 125–241). Since perceptions matter in
international relations, he highlights that the mutual perceptions of the citizens of
China and Pakistan as reflected in survey results show that 78 per cent of respondents
in Pakistan view China favourably, whereas only 30 per cent of Chinese respondents
perceive Pakistan in a positive light (p. 151). The Chinese seem to view Pakistan as
a violent, lawless, chaotic and poorly governed country. Such negative perceptions
might impede the smooth functioning of the CPEC. Chapter 6 is followed by three
‘stand-alone’ chapters, focused on the CPEC’s impact on EU–Pakistan economic and
trade relations, Afghanistan’s position within the BRI vision and more general issues
of development versus democracy regarding the CPEC and civil-military relations in
Pakistan. These three chapters aim to complement the assessments in Chapter 6, as
well as shedding light on additional areas of significance, especially regarding political
 Book Reviews 149

dimensions of the CPEC implementation. The concluding remarks and thoughts are
presented in Chapter 10, which sums up the key findings and provides an overview
of possible trajectories for a comprehensive analysis of the CPEC.
The book has a few weaknesses, as Wolf uses terminologies such as ‘corruption’ and
‘bribes’ with no clear-cut definitions or explanations. Jones and Zeng (2019) argue that
China’s socialist ‘regulatory state’ is shaping BRI’s implementation. While the book
under review makes a valuable contribution to the BRI literature and dispels myths
and over-simplified ideas about the CPEC, what is missing from Wolf ’s account is an
exploration of the nature of the Chinese state, linking its ideological orientations and
impacts on the BRI and CPEC. Overall, though, this is a very good book, which will be
used as a reference tool for further studies. Its main strengths are, first, that it develops
logically a new conceptual framework for understanding ECs with a comprehensive
and in-depth case analysis of the CPEC, especially from a social science perspective.
Second, the book fills a major research gap in relation to the BRI, the ECs and South
Asian integration into global geopolitics. The materials painstakingly collected and
collated by the author for the benefit of scholars, curious readers and policymakers
are reflected in an impressive bibliography (pp. 329–80). There is also a very helpful
index (pp. 381–95). Scholars and students will find this volume really useful.

References
Ahmed, Z.S. (2018) ‘Impact of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor on Nation-building
in Pakistan’, Journal of Contemporary China, 28(117): 400–14.
Blah, M. (2018) ‘China’s Belt and Road Initiative and India’s Concerns’, Strategic Analysis,
42(4): 313–32.
Garlick, J. (2018) ‘Deconstructing the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor: Pipe Dreams Versus
Geopolitical Realities’, Journal of Contemporary China, 27(112): 519–33.
Jones, L. & Zeng, J. (2019) ‘Understanding China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”: Beyond “Grand
Strategy” to a State Transformation Analysis’, Third World Quarterly, 40(8): 1415–39.

Saleh Shahriar
Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, Yangling,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: shahriar.tib@gmail.com

Richard S. Weiss, The Emergence of Modern Hinduism. Religion on the Margins of

Colonialism (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019), xi + 203 pp.
DOI: 10.1177/0262728019899189

This excellent book argues succinctly and convincingly for the importance of recognising
regional, vernacular forms of innovation in processes of Hindu modernisation in
colonial South Asia. This is a model for postmodern South Asian Studies in terms

South Asia Research  Vol. 40(1): 137–155

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