Pakistan as China’s strategic gateway and ally : a study through rimland theory and offensive realism

Abstract

This study elucidates Pakistan’s evolving role as a strategic gateway state for China within the context of regional and global geopolitics. Centered on the core research question, how do China’s strategic and security interests make Pakistan a potential gateway state, and does the China-Pakistan alliance help China’s power maximization? This research employs a qualitative methodology based on secondary sources. Bridging Nicholas Spykman’s Rimland Theory and John Mearsheimer’s Offensive Realism, the study explicates Pakistan’s geostrategic importance in China’s power maximization calculus. The findings indicate that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor exemplifies a strategic power-maximization alliance and a rimland strategy, driven by shared interests of power maximization and countering regional adversaries, particularly India and the US. The study maintains China-Pakistan’s consistent cooperation and interdependence, despite Pakistan’s historical ties with the West, which reflect a rational strategy that prioritizes security and economic stability. In a nutshell, the research concludes that Pakistan’s geographical leverage as a rimland state and political alignment have made it an indispensable node in China’s BRI, offering both nations strategic depth and regional influence in the broader Indo-Pacific contest.