The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a massive bilateral infrastructure network project, classified as an economic corridor and serving as the flagship project of China's larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The concept was originally set up in May 2013 and formally launched in April 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed 51 agreements. The primary goal for China is to secure and shorten the route for its energy imports from the Middle East, bypassing the vulnerable Straits of Malacca. For Pakistan, it was intended to address chronic electricity shortages and modernize its transportation infrastructure.
The mechanism involves constructing a 3,000 km network of roads, railways, and pipelines connecting the deep-sea Gwadar Port in Balochistan to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in western China. Key provisions include the modernization of the Karakoram Highway, the development of energy projects, and the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across Pakistan. The project is coordinated by the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC). CPEC is often referred to as the revival of the Silk Road and is the most developed land corridor of the BRI. A major point of contention is that the corridor passes through Gilgit-Baltistan, a region that India claims as its own.
The project has recently evolved into CPEC 2.0, which was agreed upon in September 2025. This upgraded phase shifts the focus from the initial infrastructure and energy "early harvest projects" to business-to-business (B2B) investments in areas like agriculture, IT, AI, minerals, and industrial relocation. The initial focus on infrastructure and energy remains, but the scope has been broadened to include new sectors. There are also plans to extend the corridor into Afghanistan.