What went wrong with the China-funded Dubai 2.0?

The city of Gwadar has a huge new airport, but suspicion of Beijing's true intentions threatens to wreck the project

- By Shah Meer Baloch GWADAR and Hannah Ellis-Petersen DELHI

As the first flight touched down on the fresh tarmac at Gwadar, it was hailed by Pakistan's government as a step towards "progress and prosperity". The new airport - the largest in the country built in Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province was "a symbol of the cooperation between Pakistan and China", according to the defence minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif.

Yet the optics of the event told another story. As it unfolded, the city of Gwadar was put under a security lockdown. And while several senior Pakistan government and military figures were present, their Chinese government counterparts were noticeably absent - even though it was China footing the $230m bill for the airport.

Gwadar, with its Chinese-sponsored airport, deepwater port and proposed economic zone, has been touted as a jewel in the crown of the ChinaPakistan economic corridor (CPEC), under which China pledged to build around $62bn of infrastructure "megaprojects" spanning airports, highways, railways, ports and power plants for cash-strapped Pakistan. CPEC began in 2015 as a flagship project of China's belt and road initiative, which aims to give China access and influence over trade routes in Asia and Africa.

After a turbulent decade, questions are being raised about CPEC's future.

In Balochistan, it has provoked a fullblown security crisis. Starkly unfulfilled promises that Gwadar would be transformed into "Pakistan's Dubai” have led to potent anger towards China among locals, who accuse it of turning the city into a high security prison, with fencing, segregated areas for Chinese workers, security checkpoints and heavy police and military presence.

Among the projects in Gwadar that have been met with local distaste is a donkey-slaughtering factory - not yet operational where up to a million donkeys imported from Africa are to be killed to harvest products, including an ingredient used in traditional Chinese medicine.