China using cheap loans tactic to reduce India’s influence in Indian Ocean Region, say research papers

China has been growing its activities and influence using the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project in India’s extended neighbourhood with the sole purpose of reducing New Delhi’s influence in the Indian Ocean Region, papers presented at key security meet in the national capital argued.

Apart from BRI, China has been using the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan, providing easy loans to several Southeast and South Asian nations in the name of developmental works, while effectively distracting India with hot borders and Line of Actual Control (LAC), the papers presented by the Indian Police Service officers said.

"All this is being done with the aim to keep India constrained and occupied in facing the resultant challenges, force resolution of bilateral issues on its own terms, modulate India's growth story, leaving it (China) free to achieve its aim of becoming not only Asia's pre-eminent power, but a global superpower," the papers titled "Chinese influence in the neighbourhood and implications for India" said.

These papers were submitted as part of a three-day annual conference attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and about 350 top police officers of the country.

According to one of the papers, China has become far more attentive to its South Asian periphery, moving beyond commercial and development engagements to more far-reaching political and security ones.

And in response, many of India’s neighbouring countries have called China as a key development partner either as a funder or in providing technological and logistical support, it said.

“It is the biggest trading partner in goods for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and the second-largest for Nepal and the Maldives,” it said.

"However, the economic element is increasingly intertwined with political, government, and people-to-people aspects of these relationships," it added.

Covid helped China

The onset of Covid pandemic helped China in opening up several new avenues in engaging with these countries such as providing medical equipment, biomedical expertise, and capital for coronavirus-related needs, it said.

“These developments demonstrate that China's presence in Southeast and South Asia is no longer predominantly economic but involves a greater, multidimensional effort to enhance its posture and further its long-term strategic interests in the region,” the paper said.

The paper says that China is hell-bent on achieving regional power status in the Indian Ocean Region, and “to do so, Beijing wants to contain India which is the only threat before China in this region."

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