1 Caravan Trade to Neoliberal Spaces: Fifty Years of Pakistan-China Connectivity across the Karakoram Mountains Hasan H. Karrar Lahore University of Management Sciences hkarrar@lums.edu.pk Abstract Located along Pakistan’s central Asian margins, the high mountain region of Gilgit-Baltistan borders Afghanistan and India, and since 1969, has connected Pakistan to China. In this article, I argue that over the previous fifty years, expanding forms of connectivity between Pakistan and China were localized in Gilgit-Baltistan through three processes: (1) Since 1969, overland connectivity between Gilgit-Baltistan and western China has enabled Pakistan to imagine and project expansive ties—and geopolitical aspirations—that transcend the border areas where the cross- border trade was initially localized; (2) Unfolding ties between the two countries were accompanied by new material exchanges: initially barter trade and regulated caravans, followed by private commerce in the mid-1980s, and finally, economic corridor development under the Belt and Road Initiative; and, (3) Chinese investments in Pakistan were part of a new cycle of global accumulation. Concurrently, in the wake of transnational investments, local governance in Gilgit-Baltistan adopted neoliberal administrative measures: the prioritizing of investment capitalism, privatization of public goods and services, securitization. CITATION: KARRAR, H. H. (2020). Caravan Trade to Neoliberal Spaces: Fifty years of Pakistan- China connectivity across the Karakoram Mountains. Modern Asian Studies, 1-35. doi:10.1017/S0026749X20000050