By: Nantoo Banerjee
There is nothing to be surprised about Sri Lanka’s decision to dock Chinese ‘spy’ vessel Yuan Wamg-5 at its Chinese-built Hambantota port, last week, despite protests from India. Sri Lanka President’s belated statement that China won’t be allowed to use the port for military purposes could at best be intended to temporarily allay India’s concern. Such a promise has no legal or logical basis. Sri Lanka’s deep-sea Hambantota port, which China built at a cost of over one billion dollars as part of its global infrastructure programme (BRI), technically belongs to China. Under an agreement in 2017, Sri Lanka Ports Authority created Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG), which then became a joint venture after China Merchant Ports bought an 85 percent stake in HIPG to facilitate the Chinese company’s US$1.12 billion investment in the port. Thus, the HIPG is majority Chinese owned. China can use the port the way it likes. Expect more such Chinese war ships to dock at Hambantota in future.
Similarly, China has made large strategic investments in Bangladesh in the Chittagong and Payra Deep Sea Port projects. China is financing and constructing the Payra Deep Sea Port project estimated to cost a few billion dollars. The port is the third largest in Bangladesh and had started operating in 2016. The development of the Chittagong port is based on equal terms between China and Bangladesh. The two countries signed a reciprocal agreement for ‘joint economic development.’ China took particular interest in the expansion and development of the Payra deep-sea port. Two Chinese firms — China Harbour Engineering Company and China State Construction Engineering Company — inked deals worth US$ 600 Million for developing the port’s main infrastructure and riparian aspects which includes services for housing, healthcare education etc. There is no reason to believe that China won’t use these ports to anchor its war ships in due course.
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Many feel that behind China’s interest in developing the two large port projects in Bangladesh is to ultimately exercise sovereign control over them as it has done in the case of the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka. Recently, Bangladesh did not allow the docking of a China-built frigate for the Pakistan Navy at Chittagong. But that does not suggest Bangladesh will take a similar stand on China’s own warships in future. In Dhaka, officials are said to be wary that it may not take long before China starts asserting more control over the Chittagong and Payra ports. Bangladesh may soon fall prey to China’s debt conversion attempt. China is subtly trying to bring Bangladesh closer to Pakistan where it is building a port complex at Gwadar, which will provide Bangladesh an easy access to trade with Central Asian countries.
China’s multi-billion-dollar Gwadar port complex, billed as a “ Port-Park-City,” along with Hambantota, Chittagong and Payra ports, is seen as part of China’s ‘String of Pearls’ that refers to the network of Chinese military and commercial facilities and relationships along the sea lines of communications — from China’s mainland right upto Port Sudan, the Horn of Africa. The sea lines run through a number of major maritime choke points such as the straits of Mandeb, Malacca, Hormuz and Lombok as well as other strategic maritime centres in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Maldives and Somalia. The Gwadar port has been heralded as one of the key successes of the CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) projects. Critics see the Gwadar port complex as part of China’s ‘debt-trap’ policy extending billions of dollars in soft loans, setting up Chinese enclaves in a Pakistani city and Chinese private security firms operating in a grey legal area. As in the case of Hambantota, Gwadar’s real masters sit in Beijing not Islamabad.
On paper, China’s ‘quadrilateral’ cooperation is intended to bring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka closer to Pakistan and induce them to use the Gwadar port to reach out to landlocked central Asian republics to export their wares such as tea and readymade garments. However, China’s ultimate object appears to be to use the link to establish its strong naval presence in the Indian Ocean region. China has the world’s biggest maritime force with an inventory of about 355 warships and counting, said a recent US defence department (Pentagon) report. The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is slated to expand its inventory to 420 ships within the next four years. By 2030, the PLAN is expected to have 460 ships. The giant fleet combines major surface combatants, submarines, aircraft carriers, ocean-going amphibious ships, mine warfare ships, and fleet auxiliaries. “This figure does not include 85 patrol combatants and craft that carry anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs).… Much of this growth will be in major surface combatants,” the Pentagon report reads.
Beijing is looking for facilities to support PLAN’s overseas presence. China’s interest in building and restructuring deep seaports in Bangladesh is aimed at controlling the region comprising Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Iran. One of China’s long-term national security priorities is to be able to maintain the security of its overseas interests, as well as of its global sea lines of communication. It needs a firmer anchorage facility in the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and, overall, in the Indian Ocean region. China has been using financial and trade muscles and infrastructure investments in support of its geo-political ambitions. Bangladesh, a massive receiver of Chinese infrastructure investment, is yet to buckle under increasing Chinese pressure. However, China feels it will. China is desperately trying to consolidate its position in Bangladesh, especially at Chittagong, as it holds strategic significance.
Economically, Bangladesh is getting closer and closer to China, its biggest source of import and foreign investment in terms of both debt and equity. Last May, China helped Bangladesh to achieve a near self-sufficiency in electricity generation with the opening of a mega power plant at Payra in Patuakhali. China has also offered to construct nuclear power plants in Bangladesh. China’s infrastructure investment in Bangladesh is worth over $10 billion. Bangladesh is reportedly set to receive an investment worth $40 billion from China under a bilateral partnership. More than 500 Chinese companies are now active in Bangladesh. China is involved in the construction of major infrastructure projects such as seaports, a river tunnel, highways, and has partly helped build the country’s longest bridge over the river Padma. Incidentally, Bangladesh armed forces are highly equipped with Chinese tanks, naval frigates and missile boats. Its Air Force flies Chinese fighter jets. This year, China and Bangladesh signed a “Defence Cooperation Agreement” which covers military training and defence production. It is a matter of time before Bangladesh allows PLAN to use its deep-draft ports for military purposes. (IPA Service)
