What is China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and why does India oppose CPEC?

The Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, is China’s massive global infrastructure programme, launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping. China has financed ports, railways, highways, power plants and pipelines in well over a hundred countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Supporters say it has delivered infrastructure that poorer countries badly needed. Critics argue that some projects left countries with heavy debts and that China gains strategic influence through them. Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, leased to a Chinese company for 99 years after Sri Lanka struggled with repayments, is often cited as an example, though the debt-trap argument is debated by researchers.

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, is BRI’s flagship project, linking western China to Pakistan’s Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea. India objects because part of CPEC runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which India considers its own territory. For India, accepting CPEC would mean accepting a violation of its sovereignty, which is why it has refused to join the BRI.