CPEC this and CPEC that: Spatial dialectics of state power and resistance in Balochistan

This paper examines how infrastructure, far from neutral and inherently developmental, becomes a site of spatial politics and resistance in Balochistan, a heavily militarized region in Pakistan, also known as the hub of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Using Gunnar Olsson’s theoretical insights into the dialectics of identity and difference, expressed through the triad “this,” “this is this,” and “this is that,” which interrogates how distinctions such as here and there, self and other, are linguistically, socially, and cognitively constructed and maintained, I analyze a full-day conference “Fencing Gwadar (Balochistan): From Mega Project to Mega Prison,” held at the Quetta Press Club in the capital city of Balochistan. Intended to mobilize opposition to the CPEC project, the conference became a site of confrontation when state authorities locked the venue, prompting attendees to break the locks and reclaim the space. This moment, marked by state-imposed spatial and infrastructural violence on one hand and public acts of infrastructural sabotage on the other, reveals the contradictory role of infrastructure in Balochistan, where it functions simultaneously as a mechanism of domination and means of defiance. By unpacking this incident, the paper shows how infrastructural politics in Balochistan reflects larger territorial struggles, contested sovereignties, and the asymmetries of power inherent in Pakistan’s ongoing military occupation of Balochistan.