During a visit to Sri Lanka last Diwali, we found the markets of the island nation glutted with Chinese goods. The largest road connecting the two ends of the country has been built by China. In addition to this, the maintenance of a Sri Lankan port is handled by Beijing. On observing all this, we asked officials there as to why Sri Lanka is handing over most of the infrastructure works to China despite the fact that India has done a lot of work in the island nation.
The Sri Lankan officials replied that Colombo’s ties with Beijing have cemented further over the last four to five years and this, according to them, is attributable to China funding their country immensely with the result that unprecedented development has taken place in the island nation. According to them, China not only provides Sri Lanka with loans but also gets the work done at a low cost. They further said that India does not help them in the similar manner and, therefore, Sri Lanka cannot compromise the interests of its citizens.
The Sri Lankan officials further said that China provided them advanced products at low cost. China’s aid has led to growing affiliation of every Sri Lankan sector with it and there is also a growing bonhomie between Colombo and Beijing, according to the officials there.
With this feedback, we met the then Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who is now Indian Ambassador to the US. We asked the High Commissioner as to why Sri Lanka goes on executing agreements with Chinese companies and the government relegating India to the background.
He told us that India is also forging ahead as far as relations with Sri Lanka is concerned, and even there is a facility of visa on arrival and free visa. The High Commissioner further informed that India is going ahead with strengthening relations with Sri Lanka on age-old ‘religious bonds’ and this is being ensured by developing temples in the country. However, his reply forced us to introspect as to what kind of framework we are creating.
There is no denying that the Chinese domination is increasing in the Asia-Pacific region. Majority of the countries in this region are not only debtors of China but the Dragon is also an important player in their infrastructure development. In this manner, China has maintained a grip over all these countries. In South Asia, China has tremendously burdened Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Nepal with its debt.
According to an American report, three out of the four big Government Banks of China have advanced more loans to foreign countries than to corporates. China has adopted it as a strategy to disburse the loans. It is sending its companies to enter into commercial agreements with those countries of the world where there is only one-way profiteering.
Sri Lanka being buried under a debt of more than a billion dollars had to hand over its Hambantota Port to China.
Maldives snatched back all the projects from India and handed them over to China. Maldives withdrew the $511 billion international airport project from Indian firm GMR and handed over the same to China. Now many projects in Maldives are being developed by China. It is entrapped in the web of the Chinese debts. China is not only carrying out unprecedented development in Asian countries but is also doing the same in African countries.
One such country Djibouti has handed over its most important port to China. America has established its armed bases in Djibouti and because of this, it is feeling insecure and on account of the same America is annoyed with Djibouti.
The US Secretary of State has apprised the Congress that China is working in such a manner as to force all the countries to be dependent on it. It is in a position to enforce its dictates by advancing unaccountable loans and such countries are not only under the threat of losing their self-sufficiency but also their sovereignty.
China is capable of building unprecedented infrastructure. The Centre for Global Development believes that 8 partner countries of “One Belt One Road” project namely Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Monte Negro, Pakistan and Tajikistan are all buried under Chinese debts. This commercially important project is a reason for threat to both India and America.
The agreement between Pakistan and China over Gwadar has resulted in the colonization of the former by the latter via financial investment. Now China has started projects in Bangladesh and Bhutan to build close relations with these nations also. In this chain, it will link Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh with a road network and on the linking India would be encircled from all sides. Work is under progress on this project. Chinese road has also been laid down in Doklam.
Pakistan is connected with China through a direct road link and now there is a plan to lay down a railway line which is not only alarming development for India but it is a ticking time bomb. Whether it is Ladakh or Arunachal Pradesh, China has captured thousands of kilometers of land and also massive infrastructure is being developed there.
The manner in which China has backstabbed us has immensely weakened us and this is the reason why we have been forced to invest in purchase of defense equipment instead of improving our fiscal health at a time when the economy is deteriorating.
We are in a race to create new infrastructures after demolishing the old ones but the infrastructure of our country is collapsing. We do not have a credible plan to challenge the Chinese dominance. In the recent days India, America, Australia and Japan entered into a strategic alliance against China and started the work when there was a regime change in Japan. However, it is yet to be seen how far Japan would work for the alliance in the time of economic crisis.
The popularity graph of Trump has, at the same time, declined in America and the US elections are expected by this fall. If there is a change in the regime in Washington, then there would be a change in their policies, as a result of which this alliance would get weakened. It would have been beneficial if the trade chain in the Indo-Pacific region had been established but not much credible work could be done. India’s flawed economic policies, demonetisation, unsynchronised GST, the poor condition of states, and social unrest have all weakened the country with the result that our economic condition is in a bad shape. The Covid-19 pandemic made it worse and now we are among the worst economies of the world.
The problem of our country is that our rulers do not frame the policies keeping in view the interests of the common citizens, consumers, poor farmers and laborers. Policies are framed keeping in view the interests of the corporates and big business houses, and this way common men are misled, sometimes on the issue of education or on the geopolitical history or on the issues related to communal hatred. As a result, there is neither peace/prosperity in the country, nor on its border. With this being the case, our enemies stand benefitted at the end. They encircle us from all sides, and as a result of this instead of spending our resources on the welfare of our citizens and on development, we are forced to spend it on procurement of weapons. And this is what is happening. If a timely action is not there, it shall be too late and everything would be lost.