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How China’s rivalry with India is rippling across South Asia

B. Z. Khasru says the feud between New Delhi and Beijing is holding back potentially bountiful economic collaboration among their smaller neighbours and, in some cases, having disastrous effects on human rights

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) greets Chinese President Xi Jinping while Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto looks on, during the 2017 BRICS Summit in Xiamen, China, on September 5. Photo: EPA-EFE
By seeking to establish their dominance over South Asia, India and China are constraining the economic prospects of smaller neighbours. Their contest for the upper hand is also exacting a human toll on Muslim minorities in Myanmar and Hindus in Sri Lanka.

More than 600,000 ethnic Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since August. Beijing and New Delhi dismiss their persecution as part of Myanmar’s internal affairs, given that both wish to be in the good books of the strategically important, resource-rich nation.

Rohingya refugees receive food distributed by a Turkish aid agency at a refugee camp in the Bangladeshi region of Ukhia on Monday. Photo: AFP
Rohingya refugees receive food distributed by a Turkish aid agency at a refugee camp in the Bangladeshi region of Ukhia on Monday. Photo: AFP

Beijing says foreign interference is not the answer to Rohingya crisis

This just adds to regional tensions. Bengalis are pressing their government to arm the refugees to fight the Myanmese military. Bangladesh has conveyed its displeasure to both India and China over their policies. In fact, there is great potential for economic cooperation between Bangladesh and Myanmar. For example, Bangladesh could tap into Myanmar’s huge potential hydroelectric power resources, while the two nations, along with India and China, have discussed building an economic corridor to lift up the area’s 400 million hapless residents.

Indian activists from the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party protest outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on July 7, in the wake of border tensions between the neighbouring countries. Photo: AFP
Indian activists from the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party protest outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on July 7, in the wake of border tensions between the neighbouring countries. Photo: AFP

In letter to Tibetan herders, Xi sends message on China’s border row with India

Yet, hindering such possibilities is the India-China border dispute involving Bhutan, which flared up recently. Sri Lanka’s Hindus, meanwhile, are also casualties of this Sino-Indian cold war, because India has favoured economic and military issues rather than human rights concerns due to the China factor. Beijing’s aid to Sri Lanka has boomed since the end of the civil war in 2009, with mega projects to help draw Sri Lanka into its “Belt and Road Initiative”.

Also, in Pakistan, Beijing is implementing several deals under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor plan. India opposes the corridor, saying it passes through Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, which India claims.

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