The Dragon Near Home : Don’t Blame Yunus only, Hasina Opened Bangladesh for Chinese
There is no doubt that the Bangladesh government under Dr Mohammad Yunus is overtly anti-Indian and, of late, overtly pro Chinese. His stand against India is primarily because of New Delhi’s perceived patronage to Sheikh Hasina, his bête noire. It was, thus, not surprising that he would go to the Chinese – to counter Indian influence. And, in his over enthusiasm his veiled threat to North East India complicated the situation further. He is reported to have offered a long-discarded airport (built by the British in 1931) at Lalmonirhat to the Chinese, which is undoubtedly, a serious matter as it would bring the Siliguri Corridor , the Chicken neck, under the Chinese surveillance from close proximity. That’s a threat, indeed. Then there was also his offer to Beijing for ‘use’ of the Chittagong port etc. This is an attempt of Dr Yunus to end the Indian bid for sea approach through this port. (India has, nevertheless, in the meantime come out with an alternative route using Kaladan in Myanmar).
However, why one should blame Md Yunus alone ? Fact remains it was Sheikh Hasina who helped the Chinese most to extend its footprint in Bangladesh. For the Chinese while earlier Chittagong interest wasa part of its ‘String of Pearls’ policy, now it is a part of its larger ‘Belt and Roads Initiative (BRI)’- Beijing’s new geo strategic outreach programme.
Let’s have look in the past.
For New Delhi there was, something, truly, unsettling in Bangladesh as Beijing according to newspaper reports on September 15, 2010 had successfully prevailed upon Myanmarese military junta to allow their territory to directly connect China with Chittagong. Besides, as the situation stood then China was supposed to lay its hand on Chittagong port for up-gradation and begin construction of a deep sea port at Sonadia island -nine sq.km picturesque tourist spot-located on the Bay of Bengal-seven kms off Cox Bazaar port.
On 15 September, 2010 Bangladeshi newspapers reported that Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Zhang Xianyi told Dhaka authorities on 14 September, 2010 that Myanmar had agreed to the proposal for construction of a tri-nation highway connecting Chittagong and the Chinese city of Kunming in Yunan province through Myanmar. The message was conveyed to the Bangladesh minister for forests and environment, Hasan Mahmud.
“Myanmar had kept its decision pending to a similar proposal made by Bangladesh earlier”, the minister said.
China and Bangladesh both were also then going ahead with two more proposals.- Chinese assistance for up-gradation of Chittagong port and creation of a ‘deep sea port’ in Sonadia Island.
“Xianyi told us that China would now provide support in the construction of the planned ‘deep sea port’ at Sonadia”, Mahmud said. (https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-159863)
|Also Read :China assures support to build deep-sea port |
In March that year – 2010, two months after her visit to India, Sheikh Hasina had gone to Beijing and requested Chinese President Hu Jintao to build the China -Chittagong road through Myanmar. The proposal had actually been first floated by her predecessor Begum Khaleda Zia in 2003. But Sheikh Hasina took it to a new level.
China-Myanmar-Bangladesh tri-national highway, Beijing’s imminent presence in Chittagong and Dhaka’s interest to Chinese offer to Sonadia port construction, would inevitably pose serious geo-strategic threat to India and affect New Delhi’s maritime interest. Both Chittagong and Sonadia would give China direct access to the Bay of Bengal and in extension to the Indian Ocean.
China had already got considerable trade and infrastructure development projects. Bilateral trade between Dhaka and Beijing is expected to increase to US$ 5 billion in 2010 from US$ 4.58 billion in 2009.
During her China visit Hasina surely kept in mind the strengthening Sino-Bangla economic cooperation. A joint communique was issued which said: The two sides decided to establish a “closer Comprehensive Partnership of Cooperation” between China and Bangladesh from the strategic perspective and on the basis of the principles of longstanding friendship, equality and mutual benefit.
“Last year, during my visit to China, I requested the Chinese Government to present two frigates with helicopters to the Bangladesh Navy. The Government of China agreed….Meanwhile, two ultra-modern missile-armed large patrol craft are being built in China”, says Sheikh Hasina, (“Address on the Occasion of the Commissioning of BNS Dhaleswari and BNS Bijoy,” Prime Minister’s Office Mar. 5, 2011)
On the other hand, her minister Dipu Moni said , “It will be a great achievement if China agrees to use our Chittagong port, which we want to develop into a regional commercial hub by building a deep seaport in the Bay of Bengal. (“Bangladesh to Persuade China to Use Chittagong Port,” Reuters, Mar. 14, 2010).
In fact, this writer once asked Dipu Moni in Agartala on the same and she admitted the Chinese interest in Chittagong. When I asked what about India , will Bangladesh be similarly interested if Delhi wants to develop Chittagong, Dipu Moni smiled and said only one line, “ all are welcome”. Dipu Moni was known to be the most pro-Chinese politician of the Awami League.
In fact, this writer once asked Dipu Moni in Agartala on the same and she admitted the Chinese interest in Chittagong. When I asked what about India , will Bangladesh be similarly interested if Delhi wants to develop Chittagong, Dipu Moni smiled and said only one line, “ all are welcome”. Dipu Moni was known to be the most pro-Chinese politician of the Awami League.
Sheikh Hasina was open in her invitation to China. News items published on March 19, 2010 in various foreign newspapers said:
“China can be benefited by using the deep seaport while all neighbouring countries also can use it,” she stated (https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-130836) as a key speaker at the Bangladesh-China Business Forum. She also invited Chinese investors to put money in Bangladesh’s promising sectors like textiles, small machineries, fertilisers, footwear and ceramics. ( That was no less loaded language than that of Md Yunus)
“I would urge you to invest in Bangladesh which would be lucrative as well as strengthen further our two countries’ relation,” Hasina said.
The prime minister said, “at present, 55 Chinese enterprises with proposed investment of US $ 292 million has been invested creating job for over 45,000 Bangladeshis”.
China was immediately responsive in agreeing to construction of eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge, Water Purification Project in Pagla, Financial and Technical support for construction of power plant in Bangladesh, strengthening organisational cooperation between China National Hybrid Rice Research Centre and Bangladesh Rice Research Institutes and waiving Chinese loan, besides China “Chittagong road link and port developments. Earlier in July 2006, China had declared zero tariff access for 84 Bangladeshi items, and preferential access under Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement.
The Sino-Bangla relations that began with Gen Zia Ur Rahaman’s visit to China in 1977 evidently took a leap forward with successive regimes despite the fact that Beijing was opposed to creation of Bangladesh with support from India during Liberation War in 1971. China, in fact, quite openly sided with Pakistan in 1971 with Henry Kissinger visiting Beijing and meeting Mao Ze Dong on behalf of Nixon to garner support for Yahiya Khan.
However, in diplomacy things change fast and take an uncharted journey. Now China finds Chittagong an important destination to encircle India and breathe on her neck.
Beijing had already got access to and strengthened its maritime interest in Arabian sea and Indian Ocean through Gwador port in Pakistan, Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka, Kyakpiu in Myanmar. A news item in Indian media on September 17, 2010 said that China would also develop a facility off the Colombo port. No Indian agency or company bid for the project. (No Indian company or govt run agency had participated for Hambantota also).
China had created its huge naval base in Gwador in Pakistan.. The Karakoram highway that begins from Kashgar passes through 5,180 sq kms area -‘Trans-Karakoram Tract’ that in 1963 Pakistan ceded to China–through Gilgit Baltistan to Havelian in Abbotabad near Islamabad would eventually be connected to Gwador. In fact, it is through this route that recently 11,000 People’s Liberation Army of China entered to Pakistan.
Besides, from Kashgar another road passing through Aksai Chin would also connect Lhasa in Tibet and then would be extended up to Kunming in Yunan province. This Lhasa- Kunming road would pass through an area not very far from Indian Himalayan frontier across Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
From Kunming the roads would then connect Chittagong with the proposed tri-national highway.
On September 10 , 2010 China flagged off the construction of a road and oil and gas pipeline from Kyakpiu to Kunming (An’ning City) in Yunan in its own territory while Construction of the pipeline’s Myanmar section began in June.
“The 2,380-km long oil pipeline will end in Kunming City, capital of Yunnan. It is expected to carry 22 million tonnes of crude oil per annum to China from the Middle East and Africa”. “The natural gas pipeline will be even longer, running from Kunming into Guizhou Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China for a total length of 2,806 km. It is expected to transport 12 billion cubic meters of gas to China every year. The project is the fourth way for oil and natural gas to enter China, after ocean shipping, the Sino-Kazakhstan pipelines and the Sino-Russian crude oil pipeline”, said Global times of China on September 11, 2010.
The project was aimed at transporting oil and gas from Africa and Middle East region to Kyakpiu by ship and then to China. The project would be completed in 2013. China’s largest oil firm & parent company of PetroChina, CNPC was entrusted with the task of is building and operating the pipeline.
Intelligence reports had confirmed that while China had already got access to the Myanmar naval base in Hanggyi Island, it had for long been running monitoring stations at Coco Island, north of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
China also completed first phase of Hambantota port in southern part of Sri Lanka which they claim to be a purely commercial project. However, experts feel that since the Gwador is located in Baluchistan in case of any trouble there Beijing would easily shift their base to Hambantota and have effective influence in the Indian Ocean. The three phase Hambantota project would complete in 2023.
Needless to say, after Gwador in Pakistan, Hambantota in Sri Lanka and Kyakpiu in Myanmar, Beijing succeeded in adding one more bead to its Indian Ocean centric geo-strategic policy-‘String of Pearls’ connecting Chittagong port in Bangladesh by road and also to strengthening its presence in Bangladesh considerably.Close to North East India, Beijing’s strong foothold in Myanmar and emerging presence in Bangladesh with many projects in hand was expected to serve several purposes. While it had ostensible economic plans and hidden military components, the strong strides of dragon in the region was also considered as well-defined Chinese counter-strategy to Indian Look East policy ( now Act East Policy) .
Clearly, it was Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government that had opened the Pandora’s box. No denying that every sovereign country will have its own foreign policies , geo strategic policies that suit best for it. Sheikh Hasina just did the same in accordance with her own foreign policy framework—in a sense balancing India and China . Although it goes without saying that not all the Chinese projects were 100 percent completed or the dream was fulfilled, but fact remains it was Sheikh Hasina who went closer to Beijing.
Now Md Yunus is only in a sense following her footsteps- only difference he is doing ostensibly more for his inimical stand towards India and perhaps not based on geo-political interests of Bangladesh.
The offer of Lalmonirhaat airport to China is a pointer to this. Lalmonirhat is only about 120 kms from Siliguri Corridor and 20 kms from the border in the North. There are reports that Chinese experts already visited the ai base which remains unused since 1958. It was once used by the Allied forces during WWII.
Though the airport was in use, in 2019 Shekh Hasina Bangladesh Aerospace and Aviation University. The base is under the Bangladesh Air Force.
There are reasons for India’s worry. First there is a fundamental difference between port development which is by and large a development initiative with hidden strategic and military programmes. But any airbase under any airforce –Chinese or Bangladeshi- is basically an establishment for offensive/ defensive set up. If China indeed gets its foothold in Lalmonirhat it would then be a thorn at the neck as the Chinese would be able to monitor Indian defence and other matters closely and without any big complications at all. It may also be mentioned here that in and around Lalmonirhat the Chinese has already got several projects running – one of them being a 100 MW plant at Niphamari by a consortium of Zhejiang DunAn New Energy Co, China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, Solar Tech Power and Amity Solar .
|Post from the Past : 15 years old write up –BANGLADESH RIDING THE DRAGON
Post from the Past 2 : Another 15 years old write up–THE DRAGON BREATHES ON NECK, AS WE LOOK EAST
|Also Read : Tripura’s Border Haats Remain Shut Amid Bangladesh Unrest, Future Still Uncertain |
Note : Maps source Internet modification done by author. Not on scale.
