7 May 2020, NIICE Commentary 4504
Prateek Srivastava
While the COVID-19 crises accelerate around the world, with about 3.6 million cases, costing people’s lives, jobs, and peace, China practices its crises under the covers of diplomacy. Unlike the heroic times, the majority of the west has suffered the most with everyday escalating fatalities and has certainly, failed, or are failing to serve humanity, in a better way. Hence all the eyes and ears turn to China, which has substantially renewed the lives of its citizens post pandemic. Countries like Sri Lanka, hold the capacity to initiate and exercise a strict pandemic lockdown, however, they lack the technical assistance to test and control the colossal spread of the virus and implement their next step. Sri Lanka also needs funds and assistance to weather the dark cloud of an economic recession that’s forecast for the forthcoming months. The World Bank expects a recession in Sri Lanka, with growth rate between -3 percent to -0.5 percent for 2020 which is under 2 percent economic growth in 2020, if the country is able to contain the COVID-19 pandemic by the mid of 2020.
Contemporary diplomacy has seen the rise in complexity with the rise in resource competition, geostrategic rivalries, contrasting effects of globalization, and a global power shift. China’s rapidly growing presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and rise in the ‘Sino-Indian’ competition has brought back the Indian Ocean, which otherwise was far outside superpower dynamics since the end of the cold war concerning the geopolitical game of south Asia. Recent developments during the COVID-19 crisis indicates that traditional powers of the region are taking this situation under consideration and have made serious efforts to understand and highlight the strategic value of the islands of the Indian Ocean, mainly Sri Lanka. China’s growing role in the region, with massive aid to Sri Lanka to overcome the raging crisis, is certainly an activity that should bring India’s attention to the changing political climate of the region.
Sri Lanka, until now, has ensured that the spread of the disease remains low (771 confirmed cases and 9 deaths by 7 May), however, the island needs a greater expansion in terms of testing, prevention, masks, ventilators, and personal protection equipment (PPE), which remains cut short. The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has insisted that the country needs to carry out at least 1,500 tests daily. The lack of resources and infrastructure has created a rift between the GMOA and the government, turning Sri Lanka to seek international attention.
China comes in a rescue raft, through the route of Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, to save their strategic partner, Sri Lanka. The Chinese government, between late March and early April, got involved in donating large amounts of masks, PPE, and test kits. China granted a concessionary loan of USD 500 million, upon request, as an aid to combat COVID-19. The Chinese representatives on the island presented the SriLankan government with a detailed plan and lessons learned in China’s handling of COVID-19, which shall be used by the authorities in their own battle against the pandemic. Chinese aid, not just comes from the government but also, top-shot companies. Among these companies are China Merchants Port Group (CMPort), parent holder of the Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) and Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG); CHEC Port City Colombo, a key sponsor for a financial project of 269 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea, Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), institution behind a number of projects, including an airport highway; China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation (AVIC-ENG), building water supply projects and Huawei; and the telecommunications giant with an office in Colombo. Importantly, China is not the only one, supports are flowing from several countries. Post the Chinese response, the US promised USD 1.3 million “to help protect healthcare workers and slow the spread of the virus with infection prevention and control support.” The European Union (EU) is providing a 22 million euro (USD 24 million) grant to support Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 response.
Realists such as Machiavelli believe that ‘power’ is the currency of international politics and diplomacy. The school of literature on diplomacies highlights the role of development corporation and most importantly “ aid ” as a tool for foreign policy. However, the concern doesn’t lie for any other country, but the other Asian giant ‘India’. China wishes to expand in the region to look beyond the already existing control of India in the region and establish its wealth, through materialistic means, army, supplies, and aid. Helen V. Milner and Dustin Tingley in their latest book, claim that the richest states in the world have used “transfers of goods, services, and funds as a means of interacting with other countries” and that while “it is hard to pinpoint which goals aid actually achieves. But aid has always had geopolitical ramifications.”
During the current crisis, when the whole world is seeking as much help as they can, China’s strategic help to specific nations cannot go without grabbing an attention. Sri Lanka’s strategic location and already existing involvement of China in the region is a concern for India, and during these surreal times, it should not fade away from the Indian eye. Sri Lanka falls under the Xi government’s brainchild String of Pearl’s strategy. China, on the other hand, has mentioned that their expansion of naval strategy is entirely based on peaceful intentions and is only to protect regional trade interests, adding that the nation will never seek “hegemony” in the regional foreign trade. Similarly, with a country’s history of massive aid and support, and growing influence, one ought to think the other way. From 2004 to 2014, China provided 7 billion dollars in loans to Sri Lanka, and China has been the largest supplier of arms to Sri Lanka since the 1950s. China and Sri Lanka’s military and security cooperation intensified along with the Sri Lankan civil war. The global shift of power can be seen, in the agreement of island nations in proposals in various international treaties, USD 37.6 million deal for the post-conflict development in the nation in 2007 or later in 2012 when the Chinese security officials visit Sri Lanka, USD 100 million were granted for the construction of army camps. Sri Lanka is embedded in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with two projects, the Colombo International Financial City with an initial investment of USD 1.4 billion and the Hambantota Port and industrial zone, with USD 1.1 billion.
The concerns started severely, when unable to pay the loans of development, Sri Lanka lent the Hambantota port to China for 99 years in 2017, creating an alarming situation for India. Indian security analysts warn, as Sri Lanka slips into deeper dependence and loan debt on China, activities like the 2014 traction of Chinese submarines docked at Colombo’s harbor, traction in 2014 when Chinese submarines docked at Colombo harbor twice. It certainly remains clear that the role China has been playing in the region has changed the dynamics of the region. IOR has now become a battleground for numerous opportunities of wealth and security prospects, where the giants are luring the islands, which were once away from the limelight, into aid, development, and partnership. Geopolitics explains how the states play the game of politics and diplomacy, however, realism explained the agendas of these state actions. With the growing influence of one, innocent or not, the impression remains offensive to the other. On one hand, China and Sri Lanka’s relations deepen, while on the other hand India and Sri Lanka’s strategic relationship continues to thrive.
