China’s economic engagement strategy towards Special Economic Zones: from North Korean experiences to CPEC

Abstract

Unveiled in 2013 by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the One Belt One Road Initiative (BRI) aims at fostering economic integration in the Indo-Pacific Region and in Eurasia through infrastructural developments and policy transfers. In recent years, Chinese economic engagement patterns have been met with increasing skepticism due to their lack of transparency, their sino-centric as well as politically intrusive character. On the other hand, China remains a major contributor to economic and infrastructural development for numerous countries and has proven to be a reliable partner able to deliver on complex projects in limited time. As a consequence, many countries face internal political dilemmas regarding Chinese economic engagement, leading governments and decision-makers to adopt a wide range of attitudes towards Chinese capital and expertise. This paper aims at identifying political dilemmas created by Chinese investments by comparing Chinese economic engagement strategies in BRI‟s flagship project, the China Pakistan Economic Development Corridor, and the ones that failed in BRI‟s “dead-end”: North Korea. While Pakistan and North Korea are very different economies, examining reasons that led the Pyongyang leadership to refuse to join the BRI initiative with current political debates in Pakistan around the CPEC and the “Pak-China Friendship” could help identifying and analyzing some salient features of Chinese economic engagement strategies abroad and the political dilemmas they imply for host countries.