Notes From All Over

Amid the growing heat between China and its neighbours,  the U.S. particularly wants to pursue greater influence in Asia to stem China’s ambitions.  Philippines’ reshuffle is the end of the American ‘first island strategy’ and realignment with China and Russia meant the U.S. stands to lose its entire ‘Pacific Century” as its influence in the South China Sea is known. The United States quest to block China’s growth as an economic superpower since long by striking up close friendship with its neighbouring countries, it was quietly successful in frustrating China’s ambitions and establishing its hegemony in South East Asia. Philippines has played a major role in this geopolitical strategy for more than a century, recently its foreign policy underwent a sharp reversal after Rodrigo Duterte became President. He made efforts to improve ties with China and made friendly overtures after seven decades of hostility. Duterte wishes to resolve the long pending South China Sea ...

T he China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) being part of One-Belt-One- Road (OBOR) initiative, will help materialising China’s ambitions and make it an economic superpower, it has been a unipolar world for quite a while so it is important to know whether the U.S. is against these projects, especially since Pakistan has always been a U.S. ally. The general perception is that Pakistan’s relations with the U.S. will deteriorate due to the CPEC, U.S. investors have pulled out $71.9 million in the last 11 months whereas U.S. investment amounted to $197.1 million in the previous year, this is just one of the indicators of its displeasure, in the Obama years Pakistan-U.S. relations lacked enthusiasm. Some U.S. foreign policy experts, like the Wilson Center have been predicting an imminent ‘downgrade’ in U.S, relations with Pakistan, and an ‘upgrade’ in relations with India. As the  CPEC’s Gwadar port is one of China’s String of Pearls, this term denotes the naval bases that it do...

CPEC and the Regional Re-alignment October 20, 2016   OPINION/NEWS By Sabena Siddiqi China and Pakistan started the China Pakistan Economic Corridor project in 2015, it is China’s largest investment in any foreign country to date and promises to be a game-changer for the entire region. The CPEC projects were initially worth $46 billion, now the worth has increased to more than $52.5 billion as China and the ADB agreed to lend $8bn to upgrade the main railway line from Karachi to Peshawar, more than half of the projects are an equity investment. These investments are more than twice the total amount of direct foreign investment here in Pakistan since 2008. The CPEC will generate an approximate 700,000 jobs in Pakistan and revenue worth billions of dollars for both countries, it would also provide Pakistan with a massive amount of essential infrastructure, energy investment and development. At completion, the Gwadar sea-port will handle 300 to 400 million tons of ca...

The Cyber Crime Bill Controversy Commentary     Guest Columnists   SEPTEMBER 15, 2016  BY  Sabena Siddiqui The Cyber Crime Bill Controversy The controversial  Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill  was passed by the National Assembly and adopted unanimously by the Senate recently. It has been implemented immediately over all Pakistanis living in Pakistan as well as those temporarily living abroad. It has been termed a draconian law by many and it is said to transgress an individual’s human rights. Henceforth, it may not be possible to discuss the government and other state institutions on social media. On many counts, it carries severe punishment such as imprisonment and heavy fines for offences that are not even clearly outlined. In the past decade, the usage of social media for voicing ones opinions increased remarkably, it had become the norm to pen down literally anything on Facebook, Twitter, etc. The average user will now have...

Gwadar and Chahbahar : Regional Significance Discussion in ' Strategic & Foreign Affairs ' started by  sabena siddiqi ,  Feb 16, 2016 . Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Viber Email More Feb 16, 2016 #1 sabena siddiqi FULL MEMBER Messages: 139 Joined: Apr 4, 2013 Ratings: +3  /  201  /  -0 Gwadar has been the lynch-pin of Chinese developmental strategy for the last 50 years, it is an integral part of China,s 'String of Pearls', and it is exactly where China’s Maritime Silk Route meets its Eurasian landbased connectivity project. It is the flagship project of a broader policy 'One Belt, One Road' for connecting it to its economic markets in Asia, Europe and beyond. The main trade corridor runs along the Southern Eurasian rimland, beginning at Aden, continuing onwards to Hong Kong. Gwadar is situated right on this trade route at a vantage point. Sino-Pak relations have a particular synergy, impervious t...