Everything is certainly not fine between China and Pakistan. In a dramatic move, China has halted funding of at least major road projects which belong to the ambitious $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Further, the Chinese officials have confirmed that they are going to issue fresh guidelines for the release of the fund as there are complaints of corruption in the existing work process. This is something pretty odd and Pakistani officials are stunned by this decision.

Altogether, the future of CPEC is in serious doubt as Pakistan previously delinked itself from that $14 billion Diamer-Bhasha Dam project. At that time, Chairman of Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority Muzammil Hussain told in Pakistan Parliament that Beijing had imposed tough financial conditions and they had no other option but to delink from the project.

The decision of the Chinese authorities was conveyed formally to Pakistan in a meeting of the Joint Working Group on November 20. The decision automatically postpones the draft proposal made during a meeting of the 6th Joint Operation Committee.

No doubt, this is indeed a tough hour for Pakistan, as they consider China to be their safest bet against India. It remains to be seen whether China makes yet another formal announcement or not.