Examining the CPEC through the Lens of South-South Cooperation

Worth over $62 billion USD, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the largest infrastructure partnerships between two developing states in the world and is lauded by China and Pakistan as a model of development cooperation. By viewing the program from the perspective of a South-South Cooperation (SSC) framework, this paper analyzes the extent to which the CPEC operationalizes the principles of the SSC paradigm. In examining the CPEC’s relation with the standards of mutual benefit, equality, non-interference, and non-conditionality, China and Pakistan’s claims that the program is a blueprint for South to South development cooperation is tested by this research.