Lt. Gen Prakash Katoch
Li Jiming, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh, speaking at an event organized by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association of Bangladesh on May 10, 2021, said, “Quad says it is only for economic purposes and security and so on. But that's not true. We know that Quad is aimed at China. Obviously it will not be a good idea for Bangladesh to participate in this small club of four because it will substantially damage our bilateral relationship.” This amounts to a direct threat to a sovereign nation. But then the genre of Chinese diplomats trained together with lizards (Komodo dragons being at premium) under aegis of China's Communist Party (CCP) is meant to forget diplomatic niceties and act like rogues. Recall during the India-China Doklam Standoff in Bhutan during 2017, Luo Zhaohui, China's ambassador posted at New Delhi, indulged in the idiocy of warning India.
Earlier Wei Fenghe, China's defence minister while calling on Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid on April 27, 2021, said that China and Bangladesh should make “joint efforts against powers from outside the region establishing a military alliance in South Asia and practicing hegemonism” – in clear reference to the Quad. China appears getting uncomfortable with the Quad especially after Quad nations undertook a joint naval exercise with the French Navy in the recent past.
Concurrent to threatening Bangladesh against joining Quad, Jiming proposed China aiding Bangladesh's efforts on the Teesta River management project, stating that their involvement in the project would be ‘seriously considered' once Bangladesh submitted a feasibility report. Surprisingly, he did not order Bangladesh to submit the feasibility forthwith and threaten that if China was denied management of Teesta River it would substantially damage Bangladesh-China bilateral relationship. China's aim world over is to draw nations into its strategic sphere on the plank of assisting in development, communications and infrastructure building.
According to the Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh is to receive a major consignment of 500,000 doses of the China-made Sinopharm vaccine on May 12. The news report goes on to say that this will be the “first time that Bangladesh will receive Sinopharm in such large quantity” since the beginning of the pandemic last year as India had delayed the delivery of Covishield vaccine in recent weeks. This means that China has been supplying Sinopharm vaccine to Bangladesh even before the WHO approved it for emergency use only on May 7, 2021.
Bangladesh has kept up its intensified efforts to get Covid-19 vaccines from India, China, and the US. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reaffirmed on May 9 that her government will procure vaccines at any cost to protect people from coronavirus. She said, “We are bringing more vaccines, no matter how much money is required; we will bring more vaccines. We are procuring each dose of the vaccine spending money, but providing it for free so that people can stay safe.”
Li Jiming was euphoric in officially announcing that half a million doses of Sinopharm Covidvaccine to Bangladesh is a “Special Gift”. Addressing a press conference Jiming said, “It's the latest outcome of China-Bangladesh anti-pandemic cooperation which again shows that our two peoples are in the same boat and we will stand with each other till the end of this battle. The Bangladeshi government also gave emergency use authorization to the vaccine a week prior to the WHO's clearance, which I believe is a far-sighted decision. It shows the faith put in China by Bangladesh, and it will surely mean a lot to our future cooperation.”
According to an inside source the so-called “special gift” of Sinopharm Covid vaccine is actually on payment, not free. Perhaps the ‘gift' part relates to the large quantity. It is a different issue that having planned to weaponise the virus for five years including its devastating effects and preparation for a counter-propaganda narrative in advance before biologically bombing the world with the Wuhan Virus, whether China is exporting the same Sinopharm as approved by the WHO or something different will always remain a question mark.
In 2002, China and Bangladesh signed a defencecooperation agreement. China is the only country with which Bangladesh has signed such an agreement. A day after signing the agreement, Chinese President Jiang Zemin told visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia that China and Bangladesh are close and friendly neighbours and their friendship boasts a profound historical basis. The pact was Beijing's effort to institutionalize existing agreements in the military field to rationalize piecemeal agreements to enhance military cooperation in production, training and maintenance.
In 2006, a Chinese report to the United Nations revealed that Dhaka is emerging as a major buyer of Chinese-made weapons. China sold 65 large calibre artillery systems, 16 combat aircraft and 114 missiles and related equipment to Bangladesh in 2006. Between 2008 and 2018, China sold $1.93 billion of weapons to Bangladesh, which constitutes 71.8 percent of Bangladesh's military acquisitions during this period. The entire tank fleet of Bangladesh is of Chinese origin although 44 of these tanks were supplied through Pakistan. Similarly, small arms (16000 rifles and 4,100 pistols), artillery and air defence weapons are sourced from China.
The Bangladesh Navy has Chinese frigates and missile boats and submarines. In 2013, China transferred of two used Type-035G Ming-classsubmarines to Bangladesh at discounted price of just over $100 million each. The Bangladesh Air Force flies Chinese fighter jets. In 2008, Bangladesh set up an anti-ship missile launch pad near Chittagong Port with assistance from China. The maiden missile test was performed on May12, 2008 with participation of Chinese experts; successfully test-firing anti-ship missile C-802A with a strike range of 120 km from the frigate BNS Osman (1500-ton Chinese built Jianghu-class frigate) near Kutibdia Island in the Bay of Bengal. The C-802A missile is a modified version of Chinese Ying Ji-802 with weight reduced by 100 kg (815 to 715 kg) to increase the strike range from 42 km to 120 km.
China wants to establish a Kunmimg-Chittagong road link through Myanmar. In 2007, Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce, Wang Chao visited Bangladesh with the 39-member purchase delegation and purchased Bangladeshi goods worth over US$50 million. Bilateral trade between Bangladesh and China is about US$10 billion; Bangladesh imports about US$8 billion worth goods from China while it exports US$2 billion goods. In 2020, China waived tariffs of 97 percent Bangladesh's products to reduce the bilateral trade deficit.
It is an open secret that during the BNP rule in Bangladesh headed by Prime Minister KhaledaZia, at least four major anti-India terrorist camps were being run in that country which also had instructors from Pakistan's ISI and Pakistan-based terrorist organizations. The Bangladesh Army was practicing its own version of ‘Cold Start' to go for the Siliguri Corridor with support of insurgent-terrorist organizations in India that have links with China and Pakistan as well as the Maoists in Nepal. The BNP regime being pro China and Pakistan, Beijing would want its return to power while concurrently working on the current dispensation in Bangladesh to further its strategic objectives.
Bangladesh is strategically important to China on two counts. First, the access to Bay of Bengal like it already has the Pakistani coastline to dominate the Arabian Sea. Second, is to complete the encirclement of India; Pakistan is already China's vassal state; Nepal has been gained through the bloody Maoist insurgency, and; the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor see will induction of PLA into that country – same as in Pakistan. If Beijing can get Bangladesh fully aligned with it, it would enable China mount more pressure on India. That is why the fear that if Bangladesh joins the Quad, Xi Jinping's design on Dhaka will go for a six.
