{"id":14930,"date":"2025-07-27T06:08:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T06:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=14930"},"modified":"2025-07-27T06:08:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T06:08:34","slug":"reimagining-balochistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=14930","title":{"rendered":"Reimagining Balochistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
For over a century, camel caravans laden with silk, jade, porcelain, and spices traversed the expansive deserts of China\u2019s far-western frontier. These caravans, carrying merchandise from China and Central Asia, endured a grueling journey, crisscrossing the formidable Pamir and Tianshan mountain ranges en route to Kashgar \u2014 an oasis town at the heart of the fabled Silk Road. As a vibrant kaleidoscope of civilisations, Kashgar flourished as a hub where goods, knowledge, and cultures not only met, but also mingled.<\/p>\n

However, Kashghar together with other ancient Silk Road towns gradually slipped into economic obscurity in the 15th century as the rise of maritime trade shifted global commerce from land to sea. While China\u2019s eastern coastal cities leapfrogged in development during the country\u2019s rise as a global manufacturing powerhouse, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region \u2014 home to the predominantly Muslim ethnic Turkic community \u2014 was left behind.<\/p>\n

By the mid-20th century, Xinjiang had become increasingly volatile. The region was wracked by what Beijing calls the \u201cthree evils\u201d — terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism as sporadic separatist, ethnic, and religious violence turned it into a restive borderland. Today however, that image is undergoing a sea change. The Chinese government has initiated an ambitious plan to restore Xinjiang\u2019s old glory not by resurrecting its past, but by reimagining its future as a renovated bridge between East and West.<\/p>\n

And to achieve this reality, Beijing introduced a novel \u2018Root Cause\u2019 model to address the underlying socioeconomic drivers of violence by focusing on economic empowerment, infrastructure expansion, cultural integration, and good governance in an attempt to weave Xinjiang back into the fabric of national progress by transforming it into a vital trade corridor.<\/p>\n

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed says China\u2019s Xinjiang strategy was extremely well thought out and well planned that involved a holistic approach. \u201cThey (Chinese) are very clear that terrorists are not born, they are a product of circumstances. It’s about changing mindsets. It’s not just about the use of kinetic force or military force to browbeat extremists or terrorists. It’s all about giving them a better alternative, a better option for the future, a hope for a better tomorrow through education and economic inclusion. Above all, they also incorporated deradicalization as a key component of their counter-terrorism strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This strategy has five key elements. First, it employs advanced surveillance and intelligence technologies to monitor and deter extremism and terrorism. Second, it uses a rule-of-law approach with minimal force\u2014arresting and prosecuting extremists in court, while avoiding extrajudicial actions. Third, the state adopts a holistic, system-wide approach involving over a million Communist Party of China cadres, teachers, and 28,000 religious clerics to implement and support stability efforts at the grassroots level. Fourth, China pursues inclusive economic development, offering education, jobs, and business opportunities to reduce alienation and integrate disillusioned people into society. Lastly, it coordinates with neighbouring countries to eliminate external terrorist threats, including the extradition or elimination of East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) leaders.<\/p>\n

Beijing\u2019s efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Xinjiang\u2019s GDP has doubled, and incidents of terrorist violence have dropped to zero over the past decade. The region has also become a key node in China\u2019s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Xinjiang\u2019s foreign trade reached $31.7 billion in the first five months of 2025, marking a whopping 22.9% increase over the same period last year, according to the data from Urumqi Customs. This growth outpaced the national average by 20.4%, with trade volumes already exceeding the first-half performance of 2024.<\/p>\n

Once impoverished, cities like Kashgar, Horgos, and Urumqi are now at the forefront of regional economic growth. Kashgar \u2014 a dirt-poor outpost \u2014 is now home to a bustling Free Trade Zone and stands as a cornerstone of China\u2019s westward economic ambitions. The China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, divided into three core areas of Kashi, Horgos, and Urumqi generated nearly $14 billion in trade in just five months, accounting for 44% of Xinjiang\u2019s total foreign trade. Similarly, comprehensive bonded zones handled $11.42 billion in trade, representing 35.8% of the total.<\/p>\n

The trade boom is not state-driven alone. Private businesses contributed to 94.7% of Xinjiang\u2019s trade volume in the first five months of 2025, growing 25% year-on-year and accounting for 101.5% of trade expansion.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Root Cause\u2019 model identifies economic deprivation, ethnic alienation, and lack of opportunity as the main drivers of extremism and violence. Under this strategy, China launched a two-pronged campaign: a sweeping counterterrorism drive under the 2015 anti-terror law to mitigate the immediate threat; and a development push to ensure durable long-term peace. This approach is consistent with China’s broader national philosophy of lifting people out of poverty to blunt the narrative of terrorists, extremists, and separatists. China has already pulled over 600 million people out of poverty within a few decades \u2013 an achievement acknowledged globally.<\/p>\n

A 2018 report by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) describes the strategy as a blend of hard security measures and economic transformation. \u201cThis is not merely a counterinsurgency campaign,\u201d the report notes, \u201cbut a development-led pacification model aimed at engineering long-term stability through integration and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xinjiang\u2019s transformation is also being powered\u2014literally\u2014by its vast renewable energy potential. Once considered a barren, windswept wasteland, Xinjiang has become the key to China\u2019s West-to-East Power Transmission Project. Since 2010, Xinjiang has exported over 900 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, with 30% sourced from renewable energy. Massive solar farms in Turpan and wind corridors in Hami are now generating green energy not just for Xinjiang, but for 22 provincial-level regions across China. These projects are not only central to China\u2019s carbon neutrality goals, but also employ tens of thousands of residents \u2014 offering alternative livelihoods and helping to reduce rural poverty.<\/p>\n

Alongside green development, infrastructure investment forms another important pillar of the Root Cause strategy. Over the past decade, Xinjiang has undergone a sweeping urban transformation, with more than 2.5 million new housing units replacing slums and traditional mud-brick homes with modern apartment complexes.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is this transformation more visible than in the ancient city of Kashi (Kashgar), where the Chinese government has splurged over $70 billion on redevelopment. Each morning, a ceremonial gate-opening \u2014 celebrating Uyghur history, culture, and identity \u2014 draws large crowds of tourists. The once-crumbling Grand Bazaar has been rebuilt and now bustles with traders selling traditional Uyghur handicrafts, textiles, spices, and souvenirs, preserving the city\u2019s cultural essence amid modernisation.<\/p>\n

Roads, railways, hospitals, and schools have been expanded across Xinjiang. High-speed rail now connects Urumqi with Lanzhou and other major cities, while highways and logistics parks in Horgos and Alashankou have turned the region into a land port to Central Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Xinjiang\u2019s tourism sector has reawakened after a long hibernation. The region boasts over 2,000 historical and scenic sites, including UNESCO-recognised cities, the Taklamakan Desert, and parts of the ancient Silk Road. Domestic tourism has surged, injecting billions into the local economy.<\/p>\n

However, everyone doesn\u2019t look at Xinjiang\u2019s transformation through Beijing\u2019s lens. Human rights groups and Western nations have long alleged mass surveillance, forced assimilation, and violations of religious freedoms in Xinjiang. Analysts believe this is part of the West\u2019s psychological war against China\u2019s development for geopolitical objectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel the Western and Indian propaganda against China and Xinjiang is baseless and not founded on facts or empirical evidence. It’s based on geopolitics because they want an issue to beat China with. Sometimes it’s Tibet, sometimes it’s Xinjiang, sometimes it’s Hong Kong, sometimes it’s the environment, sometimes it’s the South China Sea, sometimes it’s the so-called debt trap for the BRI,\u201d says Senator Mushahid.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, something or the other they have to find some nitpicking and faults with China because they see China as a geopolitical rival and as an adversary,\u201d he adds. \u201cChina unfortunately has been a victim of this propaganda and those who have killed millions of Muslims have the cheek and audacity to call out China on human rights of Muslims in China.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mushahid claims there has been no attack on Uyghur culture or identity or demography, saying that the community enjoys cultural freedom, the highest population growth rate, and relatively better living standards, especially compared to Muslims in neighbouring countries, as Xinjiang borders eight countries, including five Muslim nations.<\/p>\n

SM Hali, who has authored several books on China, says the criticism of Xinjiang policy might have some substance, but many claims \u2014 like the mass illegal detentions, forced labour, cultural repression, and forced assimilation \u2014 are far from facts. Taking a potshot at Western media, he accused them of recycling Holocaust imagery to portray Chinese \u201cre-education\u201d centres which were set up to rehabilitate Uyghur people vulnerable to extremism through education and vocational training.<\/p>\n

Hali argues that Western nations impose a universalist framework, sidelining cultures and identities that fall outside their normative value system. \u201cWestern framing often emphasises individual rights and liberal democratic norms which clash with China’s state-centric model of governance,\u201d he says. \u201cChina has developed its own system of democracy, a system which is suited to its people, which may be different from the Westminster-style of democracy, which may be different from the US democratic norms, or the French, but if it works for China, who are we to contest that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Xinjiang holds a strategic importance in China’s broader geopolitical playbook. The region not only holds the country’s deepest oil and gas reserves, but also sits at the gateway to Central Asia besides serving as a conduit for pipelines and fiber-optic links from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and beyond. And to top it all, Xinjiang is central to China\u2019s western integration policy and its global connectivity under BRI.<\/p>\n

Can the Xinjiang model be applied to Balochistan? <\/p>\n

Xinjiang\u2019s dramatic transformation has caught the attention of some Pakistani analysts who argue that the \u2018Root Cause\u2019 model could possibly hold the remedy for the challenges facing Balochistan. They think Balochistan today mirrors the conditions Xinjiang faced prior to its overhaul — a vast, resource-rich, and strategically important region held back by chronic underdevelopment, widespread alienation, bad governance, simmering discontent, separatist violence, and religious extremism.<\/p>\n

Pakistan, many of these experts believe, can adapt three strategic lessons from Xinjiang to catalyse peace and development in Balochistan. First, launch a youth-focused vocational renaissance by establishing community-led modern training institutes in key cities, offering market-relevant skills in mining, digital services, and agriculture. Second, make locals stakeholders in resource development by mandating local hiring, profit-sharing, and forming community oversight boards. Pair Baloch districts with others like Punjab for investment and mentorship. Third, reframe the national narrative by celebrating Baloch culture through media, education, and tourism. Promote inclusion, not suppression, to build dignity and identity. While Xinjiang trained over a million people and halved poverty, Balochistan suffers high unemployment and low GDP despite its resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lesson from Xinjiang isn\u2019t about control, it’s about strategic inclusion. And Pakistan must shift from reactive security to proactive empowerment to turn Balochistan into a model of federal harmony and economic vitality,\u201d says Hali.<\/p>\n

Hali contends that the development-first approach undeniably reshaped the region \u2014 and that Pakistan can draw on this model to craft a locally adapted, rights-respecting strategy for Balochistan. \u201cFirst of all, industrialization is a stabilizing force. We have to establish SCZs in Gwadar, in Hub, in Khuzdar with tax incentives. We have to provide land grants and simplified regulations to attract investment. Then there should be resource based industries; develop value-added industries around copper in Reko Diq, gold, fisheries and marble to retain the wealth locally.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the insurgency that threatens development and inclusion efforts, Hali contends that the development-first approach undeniably reshaped the region \u2014 and that Pakistan can draw on this model to craft a locally adapted, rights-respecting strategy for Balochistan. But he cautions that development alone cannot address the province\u2019s deeper sense of exclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me say it is no longer a question of poverty, but of perceived exclusion from decision-making, resource benefits, and national narratives. And economic inclusion, when applied, must not be invisible. Participate, participatory, and dignified \u2014 that means transparent governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hali emphasised the need to involve tribal elders, youth leaders, and civil society in planning and oversight, adding that cultural respect must be upheld. \u201cWe must celebrate Baloch identity through media, education, and tourism \u2014 not suppress it. And security must be built on trust. We must replace heavy-handed tactics with community policing and reconciliation efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Mushahid echoed similar concerns, particularly around accountability and justice. \u201cIf I were asked to advise the government of Pakistan on the three things needed to resolve the issue in Balochistan, number one would be to remove this blot \u2014 this bleeding wound \u2014 of missing persons. I think this is a stain on the fair name of Pakistan. Our country is a product of democracy, the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pakistan, the senator reiterated, has much to learn from China in addressing unrest and promoting stability and harmony. Providing context, he traced the roots of the Baloch insurgency back to the government of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who, he said, dismissed Balochistan\u2019s first democratically elected government \u2014 an act that, in his view, triggered the insurgency. He credited General Zia ul Haq\u2019s period for being peaceful as the former military ruler offered respect to leaders from Balochistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cPakistan\u2019s approach has to change,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need an effective counterterrorism strategy to confront the foreign-sponsored proxies and terrorists killing innocent people in Balochistan. Yes, there must be a kinetic component \u2014 but equally important are education, political engagement, and a softer touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not spare Balochistan\u2019s own elite either. \u201cThey\u2019ve been beneficiaries of the federal system, the 1973 Constitution, and the 18th Amendment, which has given the province significant financial autonomy. Yet they\u2019ve done damn all for the people of Balochistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reverting to a comparison between Xinjiang\u2019s trajectory and Beijing\u2019s approach with Islamabad\u2019s strategy in Balochistan, Mushahid credited Chinese policy for its strategic clarity and consistency \u2014 qualities he said have been lacking in Pakistan. \u201cThat\u2019s why there\u2019s been a flip-flop approach, and the problem remains unresolved,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

From the looks of it, officials in Pakistan have increasingly emphasized the need for economic inclusion in Balochistan under CPEC, viewing it as a peace-building exercise, not just an infrastructure project. Xinjiang\u2019s journey from epicenter of terrorism to a burgeoning economic hub is neither complete nor uncontested. But the trajectory is undeniable. Trade, industry, infrastructure, and energy have returned life to cities once left behind by history.<\/p>\n

Whether or not the Root Cause model becomes a global template remains to be seen. But in the deserts of western China, a new Silk Road is being paved\u2014not with camel caravans, but with economic integration, digital connectivity, and an unapologetically developmentalist vision of peace.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For over a century, camel caravans laden with silk, jade, porcelain, and spices traversed the expansive deserts of China\u2019s far-western frontier. These caravans, carrying merchandise from China and Central Asia, endured a grueling journey, crisscrossing the formidable Pamir and Tianshan mountain ranges en route to Kashgar \u2014 an oasis town at the heart of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}