Beijing has evidently begun resorting to political manipulation of geographic realities be land or water, and alteration of the strategic future of the IOR, all to its own tune of realizing the expansionist quest – China Dream
New Delhi: Assiduously perfecting its strategic encirclement of India, China continues to grow its forays and strengthen its naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). From acquiring the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka for a 99 years’ lease, Beijing’s $1 trillion ambitious project — the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — traversing the Pakistan-occupied regions of Gilgit-Baltistan — the proposed China-Pakistan-India-Bangladesh-Myanmar Economic Corridor, the Chinese-supported and-built Gwadar deep seaport in Baluchistan, the first foreign naval base in Djibouti and strides to establish naval facilities in islands dotted around the Maldives are all part of its ‘String of Pearls’ stratagem which have marked geo-political and military repercussions for New Delhi.
According to an article published in a state-owned Chinese daily in 2014 – Beijing had planned to knot 18 pearls in the string – outlining the military strategy of constructing 18 ‘Overseas Strategic Naval Bases’ in the IOR, like in Walvis Bay (Namibia), Djibouti, Aden, Salalah, Yemen, Oman, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Seychelles, Madagascar, Maria Atoll (the Maldives), Gwadar, Hambantota, Myanmar, and others.
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Beijing continues to deny all intrusions in Indian territory and IOR claiming it is all Chinese territory. Chinese leadership denied intruding Bhutan in the Doklam area, also claiming it is Chinese lands. Thus, one can comfortably conclude that China will deny all her expansionist actions. However, what one cannot deny is that Beijing has evidently begun resorting to political manipulation of geographic realities be land or water, and alteration of the strategic future of the IOR, all to its own tune of realizing the China Dream.
Chinese ‘Naval’ Facelift
“In a strategic equation, one cannot ignore these tactics of China in the IOR. However, a lot depends on the political disparity of the host country, which becomes the cause of concern,” former Vice Admiral Ramakant Pattanaik of the Indian Navy said.
He was replying to a question on the reports of China allegedly developing a radar station and naval base on the Feydhoo Finolhu island of the Maldives. Latest satellite imagery of the island, which has been a Chinese company for 50 years at an acquisition cost of about $4 million, shows that Beijing is carrying out a lot of heavy underwater and surface construction on and around the spot.
In December 2017, a Chinese firm on Tuesday kick-started the reported development of a resort on Feydhoo Finolhu, the nearest uninhabited island to capital Male and the main airport. The government had leased the island, which had been used by the police welfare company, to an international company – Pearl Atoll.
Interestingly, the company – Pearl Atoll – is a joint-venture between China’s Shenzhen Sunpen Investments, Hong Kong’s Mirich Investments, and a local Maldivian businessman. The project was also assigned to Pearl Atoll without a bidding process.
While most reports only discussed the paltry lease amount of $4 million, the Maldivian police sources have claimed that the foreign developer had pledged to donate $85 million for police welfare.
“It is the give and take policy between Beijing and Male. The Maldivian government agreed and China got access. However, we must note that the deal for this island was approved by the past government of the Maldives,” Pattnaik pointed.
India-China Confrontations on IOR
Like the Feydhoo Finolhu island, reports also indicate alleged military activities by China 437 km away from Male in the island of Gadhoo. Defense analysts and satellite imagery experts claimed that China has started developing roads in the Gadhoo island, possibly indicating a secret deal between the former leadership of Male and President Xi Jinping.
While Beijing will portray the development of Gadhoo island under the cloak of tourism infrastructure initially, followed by supply, berthing and maintenance base for China, the Maldives and allied nations (on lines of MoU China signed with Seychelles years back), eventually establishing a Chinese naval base co-opting the Maldivian Coast Guards.
“The acquisition of Feydhoo Finolhu island means a Chinese presence just 75 nautical miles from India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). When China builds a Radar station there it will bring India’s entire western coast within its coverage,” Namrata Hasija, a research fellow at the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy said, stressing that China’s ‘facelift’ of such islands in the IOR must be of immediate concern to New Delhi.
“The whole idea serves a strategic purpose. India’s options are limited as to stopping China only option is alliances with other strong naval powers to pose any challenge if at all to Beijing,” Hasija said claiming that this development should be contextualized with the 2018 incident, when Chinese military media threatened retaliation if India sent any forces to Male.
Hasija, who has been tracking and tracing the PLA Navy since a decade warned that with the growing Chinese presence in IOR, what India is facing with them on land borders will be very soon facing in the oceans as well.
Underwater Prowess
With China aggressively transforming the IOR, former Indian Navy commander, and director of the Pune-based Maritime Research Centre, Dr. Arnab Das claimed that tools such as the underwater surveillance network could be the difference between winning and losing.
Dr. Das claimed that in the light of the Indo-Pacific strategic construct and its renewed relevance in the post novel coronavirus pandemic global order, the Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) framework becomes very critical in the IOR.
“These examples of China’s facelift of IOR islands are a perfect case for India to realize the need to develop an underwater acoustic vision. Growing underwater capabilities are central to the emerging power play in the waters surrounding India,” Dr. Das said, as he highlighted Beijing’s ‘Undersea Great Wall’ (UGW) Project, wherein Beijing aims to build a network of surface and sub-surface sensors for real-time monitoring of maritime targets in the IOR.
“In such scenarios the UDA capacity and capability building, driven by the science-technological edge to overcome the site-specific challenges will be the key,” Dr. Das said while calling upon New Delhi to play a leadership role in the IOR, given its geo-strategic location and geopolitical compulsions.
Meanwhile, former diplomat G Parthasarathy said that in the given geopolitical compulsions in the IOR, the major challenge for India’s diplomacy is how to balance relations with its neighbors, like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and others without any compromise on its core security interests.
“Nations work against you and with you. However, it all depends on overall diplomacy. China is disliked across the Pacific due to its expansionist policy. India must study adversaries, retain resources and forge alliances,” Parthasarathy said as he cautioned that Beijing has one aim – containment of India, be it from land or water.
