By Colonel R
HARIHARAN | May 17, 2021 | News | Rediff.com
https://www.rediff.com/news/column/colonel-r-hariharan-china-gets-tough-with-bangladesh/20210517.htm
We can expect to see more Chinese wolf warrior diplomats on the prowl, in India's neighbourhood, though its mailed fist is not so visible while dealing with India, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
China's
'wolf-warrior diplomacy' -- that started with a public spat between State
Councillor Yang Jiechi, China's top foreign policy official, and US Secretary
of State Antony Blinken at their meeting in Alaska in March -- showed its fangs
recently in Dhaka.
The first-ever Quad summit initiated by the US
attended by India, Japan and Australia held in March 12 seem to have triggered
the wolf warrior reaction.
On May 10, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li
Jiming speaking at a public platformed warned that Bangladesh's relations with
China will 'substantially get damaged' if the country joins the Quad, a US-led
initiative.
Li added,obviously it will not be a good idea
for Bangladesh to participate in this small club of four countries.
He undiplomatically added from the public forum,
'So, we don't like to see any form of participation by Bangladesh to this small
group of elite countries"'
Li called the Quad a 'narrow purposed'
geopolitical clique, intent on working against China's resurgence and its
relationship with neighbours.
'Quad says it's for economic purpose and
security and so on. But that is not true. We know that it is aimed at China,'
Li added after the first-ever Quad summit of leaders of the US, India, Japan
and Australia held in March.
The Chinese ambassador's 'warning' on Quad comes
shortly after China's State Councillor and Defence Minister General Wei
Fenghe's more diplomatic remarks, when he made a fleeting visit to Dhaka in the
last week of April.
After meeting with
Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, General Wei added that to jointly maintain
regional peace and stability, the two sides should make joint efforts against
powers outside the region setting up military alliances in South Asia and
practising hegemonism, an obvious reference to the Quad.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen
reacting to the Chinese envoy's unsavoury comments called it 'very
regrettable'.
Bangladesh, Momen said, maintained a non-aligned
and balanced foreign policy and it would decide what to do following that
principle.
'We are an independent and sovereign State. We
decide our [own]
foreign policy. But yes, any country can uphold its position,' he said.
Momen said China can state its position and
Bangladesh always welcomes what others say.
'We will listen to what they say. But we will
decide what is good for us.'
The Bangladesh foreign minister added they
recall with respect what others say, but did not expect such behaviour from
China.
Bangladesh and China turned their relationship
into a strategic partnership in October 2016 with a deal signed between Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, the two
countries have signed deals worth about $21 billion for upgrading
infrastructure, particularly in transport, power and IT sector.
China has emerged as Bangladesh's largest
development partner in recent years. Its lending has surged since 2018.
Perhaps, this conditioned the Bangladesh foreign
minister to be careful in expressing his nation's unhappiness at the Chinese
ambassador's comments, close on heels of advice from the Chinese defence
minister a few weeks earlier.
The Daily
Star of Dhaka in its editorial minced no words, calling the
Chinese representative's comments as 'undiplomatic, uncalled-for and therefore
unacceptable.'
The newspaper reminded that China was welcome to
express their opinion, 'it shouldn't extend to telling us what we can or cannot
do as an independent nation.'
It is not surprising that the Chinese foreign
ministry has defended its ambassador's 'warning' against Dhaka's participation
in the anti-China 'club' would result in substantial damage to its relations
with China.
Asked for her reaction to the Bangladesh foreign
minister's comments, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told
the media that she had not seen the remarks.
'China and Bangladesh are very good neighbours.
We have been developing bilateral relations based on mutual trust and peaceful
co-existence, and we have been firmly supporting each other, on issues bearing
on respective core interests and major concerns,' Hua said.
'We all know what kind of mechanism the Quad is.
China opposes certain countries' efforts to form an exclusive clique, portray
China as a challenge, and sow discord between regional countries and China,'
Hua added, justifying the ambassador's remarks.
The Chinese Communist party tabloid Global Times, hailing the
Alaska spat in April as China's 'wolf-warrior diplomacy', had pompously
declared 'The arrogant Western world led by the US is no longer eligible to
deal with the world's second-largest economy with a condescending attitude.'
This is probably the backdrop to the wolf
warrior mindset used to browbeat small neighbours of Quad countries,
particularly in India's neighbourhood.
Sri Lanka is yet to recover from Chinese Defence
Minister General Wei Fenghe's visit to Colombo after his Dhaka visit, when the
government was locked in passing the controversial Colombo Port City project
Bill in parliament.
The project developed with China's assistance is
a prestigious one of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Undoubtedly. the Chinese defence minister's
visit was to apply pressure on Sri Lanka, when it is taking a crucial decision
affecting China.
General Wei called on President Gotabaya
Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and discussed ways to further
cement bilateral ties.
After the meeting, General Wei remarked peaceful
development and win-win cooperation is the global trend and the 'right way'
forward.
In an unstated reference to the Quad, he said
certain major countries were keen to form cliques and factions and seek regional
hegemony, which goes against peoples shared aspiration and severely harms the
interests of regional countries.
Analyst Maria Siow
writing in the South China
Morning Post on April 17, 2021 posted the question 'Himalayan
Quad: Is China about to start its own security bloc with Nepal, Pakistan and
Afghanistan?' The rhetorical question has some relevance considering that
peaceful borders and territorial integrity are China's core concerns.
The moot point is how does such a strategic
alliance add value to China, which is already well entrenched, either overtly
or covertly, in the body politics of all the three neighbours of India.
While China is the lynch pin of Quad, there is
no common motivating factor for Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan to form a
security bloc, unless it is India.
As Andrew Small, author of the book The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's new
geopolitics says China-Pakistan relations 'are based on shared
hostility towards India, thrive on many common interests. A long history of
secret deals between the two armies overrides the problems of Islamic
extremism.’
But this is not the case with Afghanistan or
Nepal.
Their strategic narratives in relation to India
are substantially different and complex, dictated by prevailing geo-strategic
realities.
China's own strategic end goals widely differ in
respect of the three countries.
China's substantial economic assistance and
loans as members of the Bridge and Road Initiative is perhaps the common factor
among them. Nepal is a case in point.
Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi had been trying to
settle the differences between Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and former prime
minister Prachanda who are locked in a factional fight within the Communist
party of Nepal.
Though she has not succeeded so far, there is
less visible success of China is in whittling down Nepal's dependency on Indian
investments.
A Xinhua report last September quoted Nepal
government statistics to say the country had received FDI pledges from China
amounting to $220 million in fiscal 2019-2020 against pledges of $116 million
in 2018-2019, in spite of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
It was two thirds of the total investments
committed by foreign investors, according to the industry department.
Quoting a Nepal government official, it said
Chinese investment pledges in some hydropower projects, which are more
capital-intensive industries, contributed to a surge in overall Chinese
investment commitments.
We can expect to see more Chinese wolf warrior
diplomats on the prowl in India's neighbourhood, though its mailed fist is not
so visible while dealing with India.
Colonel R Hariharan, a
retired military intelligence officer, is associated with the Chennai Centre
for China Studies and the South Asia Analysis Group.
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