Regionalism and Space Activities: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Space Power in South Asia

ABSTRACT The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), according to Chinese policymakers, is a “Project of the Century.” At the same time, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is its flagship project to develop extensive infrastructure across Pakistan. The principal partner countries have invited the regional countries to participate in expanding the ambit of CPEC’s role in the South, the Middle East, and the Central Asian regions. China, in the backdrop of the extension of CPEC, sees the expansion of its space program. Currently, China’s space program faces international export embargoes on selling its space-based services to the high-end technology countries, which are part of the international space export control regime. This study focuses on China’s ambitions to extend the role of CPEC under the BRI as an opportunity to expand its space services to minimize the influence of the U.S.-led export embargo on Chinese space technology and cooperation. In addition, the study stresses that CPEC allows China to expand its space services market in the South, the Middle East, and Central Asian countries, thereby eventually leading to the selling of its space services and technologies to high-end technology countries.