Behind the “Game Changer” Spectacle

Abstract Existing research on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has predominantly focused on its macroeconomic and macropolitical aspects, leaving its consequences for microlevel development and the local political economy in Pakistan understudied. Scholars have stressed the need to explore how Chinese investments under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) intersect with recipient countries' local political economies. Therefore, this article examines the microlevel consequences of CPEC—a flagship project of BRI—through a case study of the development of Gwadar Port in Pakistan. Drawing from twenty semistructured interviews with local fishermen and community leaders affected by Gwadar Port's development, this study's findings reveal that despite being heralded as a game changer for Pakistan, the Chinese investments in Gwadar under CPEC lead to exclusion, livelihood loss, and dispossession, disproportionately affecting Gwadar's sizable fishing industry. Beneath CPEC's symbolic veneer created by the government, the authors identify exclusionary consequences, jeopardizing local fishermen's livelihoods and leaving them vulnerable and uncertain. This incongruity between CPEC's ambitious vision and the challenging local realities underscores an “economy of appearances” whereby narratives and symbols obscure a project's actual implications. This article's research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of CPEC's nuanced effects for sustainable and inclusive policies.