GEOPOLITICAL RECALIBRATION: PAKISTAN–CHINA RELATIONS IN A SHIFTING POST-COVID-19 ORDER

Abstract

The global recalibration of strategic alliances catalysed by the COVID-19 pandemic brought Pakistan-China iron-clad relations back into the cynosure. With a qualitative methodological approach and a foundation in neoliberal institutionalist and realist theoretical frameworks, this paper analyses official statements, primary documents, and secondary literature to inquire the multifaceted development of Pakistan-China relations in the post-COVID-19 era (2020–2025). Determining how the pandemic served as a strategic catalyst of bilateral ties across the political, economic, and security spheres rather than as a disruptor in the core objective. By revealing how pandemic-era crises were used to strengthen regional alliances in the context of the BRI and particularly the CPEC. At the same time, the shifting geopolitical scenarios, characterised by the Sino-U.S. strategic competition and India’s sustenance for the West, drove Islamabad and Beijing to endorse their support for one another’s core interests in organisations i.e., the SCO, the OIC, and the UN. To inquire how crisis-driven interdependence can strengthen strategic alliances and standardise regional power dynamics, this study adds to boarder discourse in the field of international relations on Pakistan-China Relations. It comes to the conclusion that relations between Pakistan and China improved in the post-COVID-19 era, with a convergence of economic pragmatism, diplomatic agendas, and shared geopolitical concerns which recalibrating their alignment to a greater extent.