Mohammad Amjad Hossain :
There seems to be tussle between China and USA over the issue of Quad, an informal strategic alliance of US, India, Japan and Australia. However, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jimning is reported to have said on 12 May in 2021 that if Bangladesh joins Quad that would cause substantial damage to the relation with Beijing. This statement of Chinese ambassador after the visit of Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe to Bangladesh in April this year has caused uproar in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen is reported to have said, the comment by Chinese Ambassador was regrettable and reported to have said Bangladesh would decide its own foreign policy. The Quad was first established in 2007 at the initiative of Japan.
According to Mr. S. M Ali, founder – editor of Daily Star in his book After the Dark Night is reported to have said quoting Pakistan Ambassador to China Mr. K.M Kaiser, a Bengali said Chinese Premier Chou En Lai with whom Kaiser had developed direct personal relations intervened to thwart Yahya’s move while Kaiser stayed on in Peking along with two more Bangladeshi diplomats. That effort by Chinese powerful Premier indicates that China has had a favorable trend toward Bangladesh. Chinese Premier Chou En Lai in fact visited erstwhile East Pakistan at the invitation of Prime Minister of Pakistan Husayn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1956 while Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had the opportunity to visit China twice.
As a matter of fact, Chinese relation with Bangladesh dates back into history which began as early as before the Christian era. Contact between the people of two countries may be traced back to a few centuries that developed and expanded through the Chinese Traveller, emissaries and traders. Chinese travellers, traders and historians like FA Xian, TAO-Lin, H-Tain and Huen-Tsang etc. visited Bengal now Bangladesh in the fourth and seventh centuries. Therefore, relations between China and Bengal have been centuries old. In the present century China is bent upon developing relations with old friends while India is trying to flex its economic and political power in South Asia, including Bangladesh. Following the demise of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of Bangladesh in August 15, 1975 by military coup successive governments in Bangladesh have in fact cemented their relation with China. Presently, Chinese investment in infrastructure of Bangladesh is huge while there is no doubt that technologically China is much ahead of other developing countries. By 2020 China overtook India as Bangladesh’s largest trading partner while China turned out to be an important investor in its infrastructure projects.
As a matter of fact, China has financed the construction of Payra Deep Sea port project which is located at Kalapara in Patuakhali at a cost of US eleven billion. It is the third sea port of Bangladesh which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 19 November in 2013.China has access to Chittagong and Mongla ports while China has signed a deal to develop the Mongla sea port.
The flagship Padma Bridge cum rail link project at a cost of US 3.3 billion is another project of China which will facilitate communication between Eastern parts of Bangladesh with the Southern part of Bangladesh. The project is about to be completed soon. As of now China opened eight Bangladesh-China friendship bridges, including Dhaka- Chittagong high speed Rail Bridge. China was also awarded a contract to Beijing Urban construction group for the construction of a new terminal at Sylhet airport at a cost of Taka 2.116 crore.
The visit of Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe to Bangladesh appears to be significant who called on the President of Bangladesh Abdul Hamid on 27 April this year when both of them talked about cooperation against powers from outside the region while President Hamid has sought his assistance for cooperation to call on Myanmar military junta to take back Rohingya who were forcibly displaced from Myanmar. Chinese Defense Minister also met the chief of Bangladesh Army, General Shafiuddin Ahmad, apart from paying tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Bangabandhu memorial museum. The visit of Chinese Defense Minister to Bangladesh is seen in the contest of United states dispute with China which reflected in the interim national security strategic guideline issued in March this year. It is reportedly said “China is the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to mount a sustainable challenge to a stable and open international system”. Therefore, in view of the relations with China who is a trusted friend of Bangladesh it would be wise for Bangladesh to avoid involving conflict between China and the United States of America.
(Mohammad Amjad Hossain, retired Diplomat from Bangladesh and former President of Nova Toastmaster International club of America, writes from Falls Church, Virginia).
