Mapping China's Global Future: Playing Ball or Rocking the Boat? by Axel Berkofsky & Giulia Ciorati

Author:Axel Berkofsky & Giulia Ciorati [Berkofsky, Axel & Ciorati, Giulia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, Geopolitics
ISBN: 9788855261753
Google: y1dnzQEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Ledizioni
Published: 2020-01-15T11:06:37+00:00

5. India in Sight, China’s Imprint Grows in South Asia

Harsh V. Pant

For a long time, the dominant narrative with regards to South Asia has been how the India-Pakistan rivalry has constrained Indian foreign policy options in the region, and prevented the region as a whole from attaining its full potential. That is now rapidly losing its salience, with the growing dominance of the South Asian landscape by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The country’s rising profile and footprint in South Asia have been evident for some time now. What has been astonishing is the diminishing role of India and the rapidity with which it has been ceding strategic ground to China in the sub-continent. China is becoming the largest trade partner of most states in South Asia, including India. It entered the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as an observer in 2005, supported by most member states. India could do little about it and so acquiesced. Now, much to India’s consternation, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal are supporting China’s full membership of SAARC.

Pakistan’s “all-weather” friendship with China is well known, but the growth of China’s reach in other South Asian states has been extraordinary. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka view India as being more interested in creating barriers against their exports than in spurring regional economic integration. Instead of India emerging as facilitator of socioeconomic development in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, it is China’s developmental assistance that is having a larger impact.

China’s strategy towards South Asia is premised on encircling and confining India within the geographical co-ordinates of the region91. This approach of using proxies started with Pakistan and has gradually evolved to include other states in the region, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. China is entering markets in South Asia more aggressively through both trade and investment, and improving linkages with South Asian states through treaties and bilateral co-operation. Following this up by building a ring of road and port connections in India’s neighbourhood and deepening military engagements with states on India’s periphery, China has firmly entrenched itself in India’s backyard. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its approval by India’s neighbours such as Nepal, despite strenuous opposition from India, is the latest example of inroads made by China in the region, with the stated aim of promoting connectivity and growth.

This gradual Chinese assertion has enabled various smaller South Asian countries to exploit Indo-Chinese competition in the region for their own benefit. Most states in the region now play the “China card” to counterbalance the traditional predominance of India in South Asia. Forced to exist between their two giant neighbours, the smaller states have responded with a careful balancing act.

This chapter examines the growing role of China in South Asia over the last decade and its regional impact, especially on Indian foreign policy priorities. For a long time, among India’s neighbours only Pakistan neighbours used China to further its strategic agenda regarding India. China-Pakistan collusion on the nuclear issue represents perhaps the high point of this relationship.

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