The inauguration of a 121-kilometre road through Afghanistan's Wakhan region has prompted Pakistani journalist Adnan Adil to compare the project with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and criticise Pakistan's pace of regional connectivity.
In a social-media post, Adil argued that Pakistan had spent years talking about CPEC while China had now secured a land link with Afghanistan through Wakhan. He also pointed to Pakistan's Chinese debt exposure and said CPEC had faced delays, while Wakhan could eventually give China additional routes toward Central Asia, Iran, Turkey and Europe.
Pajhwok and TOLOnews reported on October 4 that the 121-kilometre Wakhan road had been formally inaugurated. Pajhwok said the route runs from Broghil to the zero point on the Chinese border and was built in two phases at a cost of about 365 million afghanis. Afghan officials describe it as an important step toward overland connectivity with China and future trade.
The available official and credible reporting, however, does not establish that China itself constructed or fully financed this road. Afghanistan's Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development has presented it as an Afghan infrastructure project. In May, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Xing welcomed completion of the road's basic work and discussed broader infrastructure cooperation, but that does not by itself prove Chinese construction of the road.
Nor is it accurate to describe all of CPEC as halted. Pakistan's official CPEC Secretariat held a progress review in August 2026 for Phase II, covering industry, agriculture, minerals, technology and regional connectivity. Several projects remain under construction or in the pipeline. At the same time, major schemes and special economic zones have experienced delays and implementation bottlenecks.
Debt also requires precision. The IMF's 2026 staff report lists about $23.5 billion in Chinese bilateral claims on Pakistan and about $5.7 billion owed to Chinese commercial banks as of June 2025. Those figures are broader than CPEC financing and should not be treated as CPEC debt in their entirety.
Wakhan is strategically important because it forms Afghanistan's narrow link to China's Xinjiang region. It could become part of wider networks toward Central and West Asia. But describing it today as a fully operational China-to-Europe corridor via Central Asia, Iran and Turkey goes beyond the available evidence. Regular commercial traffic would require customs arrangements, border infrastructure, year-round accessibility, security and bilateral agreements.
Adil's comparison raises a legitimate policy question about implementation speed and the commercial use of infrastructure, but the Wakhan-CPEC comparison is best understood with these factual distinctions in place.