World
China Domination China continues to seek dominance in South Asia
Beijing, August 3: The whole world has been watching China's efforts to expand its hegemonic dominance in various South and Southeast Asian countries under Xi Jinping for a long time. The recent addition to that list is the China-South Asia Countries Poverty Alleviation in Chongqing, China. Apart from India, Bhutan and Maldives, the other five countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have joined the organization.
Plans to set up such a center were reportedly discussed during a virtual meeting between foreign ministers of five South Asian countries and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in late April this year. However, China has not yet said how the center will operate, what its budget will be or how and to what extent it will work with South Asian countries.
"Basically, it is a platform where the participating countries can learn from China's experience in poverty alleviation and share their own experiences," a senior official with the rank of joint secretary to the Chinese government said in a statement.
But diplomats and security experts say the move comes at a time when SAARC is at a standstill. In other words, by creating this new organization as an alternative to SAARC, China has launched a new move to dominate South Asia.
Dinesh Bhattarai, a former adviser to Nepal's two prime ministers on foreign relations and once ambassador to Geneva, told the media: "If poverty alleviation is the goal in South Asia, why is India excluded? There are so many poor people out there. The same number of poor people in the sub-Saharan region. I can see the geo-strategic motive behind it."
According to Bhattarai, since SAARC is now inactive, China wants to abandon it and use the opportunity to bring South Asian countries under a new umbrella.
The same is said by Nihar Naik, a research fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in Delhi. "China is targeting South Asia. They want to do something to counter SAARC, so they want to engage with South Asian countries in the name of such an initiative," he said.
Pakistan has always been a friend of China. In any case, they will get Islamabad on their side - it can be taken for granted. But the way China has targeted Afghanistan and then Bangladesh is significant. The analyst thinks that Nepal's turn will come after those two countries.
However, Bhattarai, a former adviser to Nepal, said SAARC's current position has given impetus to China's new initiative. But China's main purpose is to confront America. So the South Asian bloc led by them could also serve as an alternative to the Washington-led Quad.
