- Prelims:Current events of international importance(BRI, Regional forums, EEZ, PLA, Galwan valley etc
- Mains GS Paper II:Significance of Indo-Pacific for India, BRI and issues associated with it, Free and open Indo-Pacific, International organizations.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- As Xi completesa decade in office and begins an unprecedented third term at the Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress.
- It has become the short but sharp phrase of choice that sums up his view of China’s place in the world.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
Xi Jinping about China:
- Rise of East: He declared that “the West was declining and the East was rising, calling a world witnessing “changes unseen in a century”.
- Rejuvenation: Presents the Communist Party under his leadership as China’s defense against this “chaos” and as leading the country’s “great rejuvenation”.
- Diplomacy: He shaped China’s diplomacy in the past decade.
- Aggressive policies: Pursuing China’s core interests ever more aggressively.
Belt and Road Initiative(BRI):
- It was announced by the Chinese President Xi Jinping-led regime in 2013.
- It encompassed fivekinds of activities:
- Policy coordination
- Trade promotion
- Physical connectivity
- Renminbi internationalization
- People to people contacts.
- The initiative envisioned a Chinese Investment of over $1 trillion in partner countries by 2025.
- More than 60 countries have now joined BRI agreements: with China, with infrastructure projects under the initiative being planned or under construction in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
- Loans at commercial interest rates: To finance BRI projects, China offers huge loans at commercial interest rates that countries have to pay within a fixed number of years.
- Green Finance and Development Centre at Shanghai’s Fudan University: Over the past decade, the total value of projects and investments through the BRI stands at over $930 billion.
China’s relations:
- Rising China-U.S. rivalry and deepening China-Russia ties: The clearest markers of the direction of China’s foreign policy in the Xi era.
- Relations with its Southeast Asian neighbours: It has deep economic ties in the region, and managed to blunt criticism over its militarisation of the South China Sea.
Relationship with India:
- Two “informal summits:
- Wuhan(2018)
- Mamallapuram(2019)
- Chinese mobile phone brands have been well-established in the Indian market.
- Indian companies are also actively expanding the Chinese market, with a cumulative investment of nearly $1 billion in China.
- The two countries have established 14 pairs of sister cities and provinces, with two-way personnel exchanges exceeding one million.
Negative developments:
- Ongoing border crisis: triggered by the Chinese military’s multiple transgressions.
- Article 370: India has protested comments by Chinese officials on the government’s move to amend Article 370
Issues Associated to BRI:
- Chinese Monopoly in the Projects: The investments under the BRI are mostly done by the state-owned enterprises and banks in China.
- Most of the contracts (93%) have also gone to the state-owned enterprises in China.
- The host countries or other companies hardly have any role to play.
- Increased Corruption and Reduced Competition: Chinese monopoly in lending and building infrastructure has further led to corruption.
- Due to no private sector participation, there is no competitive element in the programme.
- Lack of Transparency and Environmental Concerns: The debt trap diplomacy, the lack of transparency and unreasonable loan conditions have made the scheme extremely unpopular.
- BRI- A Recipe For Total Failure: China sold most of its connectivity projects to the countries which were looking at China for the success of its economic model in infrastructure projects.
CPEC’s Implications for India:
Way Forward
- Relations with India: It has been shaped increasingly by the all-consuming focus of Chinese diplomacy on its great rivalry with the U.S, which has become the lens through which Beijing has come to view relations with much of the world, including India.
- Tension with west:The coming five years under Mr. Xi are likely to bring an ever-sharper period of tensions with the West
- Participatory Alternatives: Alternative projects must be launched by more advanced countries which are also participatory in nature keeping into account the interests of the host/recipient countries.
- Unless there is a partnership with the host country, the success of the project is not assured.
- India’s Role: India will have to work with its partners in the region to offer alternative connectivity arrangements to its neighbours.
- Connectivity is increasingly seen as a tool for exerting foreign policy influence.
- India stepping forward to enhance interconnectedness will provide a new theater for geopolitical competition with China in South Asia and the Indian Ocean.
- Connectivity also presents India with an opportunity to reestablish its regional primacy.
- Diplomatic maneuvering: Appropriate diplomatic maneuvering and economic and military assertion is vital for the implementation of India’s interests in the region along with leveraging the space as a building block for a multipolar world order.
- Supporting Indo-Pacific governments: There needs to be support for Indo-Pacific governments, boost their capacity to make independent political choices by helping partners root out corruption, including through foreign-assistance and development policies.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
- The newly tri-nation partnership AUKUS is aimed at countering China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. Is it going to supersede the existing partnerships in the region? Discuss the strength and impact of AUKUS in the present scenario.(UPSC 2021)
(250 WORDS, 15 MARKS)
- China is using its economic relation and positive trade surplus as tools to develop potential military power status in Asia” In the light of this statement. Discuss its impact on India as her neighbour.(UPSC 2017)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
