Beijing recently did an end run around Singapore to win the right to develop and operate Pakistan's western Gwadar deep-sea port on the Indian Ocean. Now, Islamabad has also done a deal with Beijing to build and operate an international airport in Gwadar. The city is envisaged as a terminus for the Pak-China Economic Corridor stretching from the sea, across Pakistan and through the Himalayan Karakorum Pass to western China. But debate in Pakistan is swirling over whether the corridor should go through the country's relatively secure east or through the shorter western route, plagued by violent separatists and Taliban.
