2.
It is the term given by U.S analysts to China’s doctrine for
securing its SLOC (Sea Line Of Communication)
String of pearls refers to series of ports and infrastructure
built covering China SLOC.
Each pearl refers to the nodes of economic and millitary
influence of China generally in form of ports.
At present it has ports in Hanin , Sittwe (Myanmar) ,
Hambantota (Srilanka) , Chittagong (Bangladesh) and
Gwadar (Pakistan).
Efforts are there from China to include Maldives ,
Thailand , Malaysia in its doctrine.
Introduction
3.
Hu Jintao former president of China in 2003 once
stated his apprehensions regarding the vulnerability
of its SLOC.
He termed his apprehensions as ‘Malacca Dilemma ‘
String of Pearls is a doctrine to extricate China from
its Malacca dilemma.
To understand String of Pearls it is imperative to
understand this apprehension.
WHY STRING OF PEARLS ?
4.
MALACCA DILEMMA
Malacca strait is in Indian ocean which connects Indian
and pacific ocean and worlds 25% of trade passes
through this strait. Countries like China , Japan , South
Korea are heavily depended on this sea route for all
their supply especially energy.
5. In picture above, dark blue line shows the sea route through
which China’s energy supplies passes. You can clearly see the
bottleneck feature of Malacca strait . This sea route is lifeline to
China’s rapid industrialization and economic growth but China
have negligible strategic control over this sea route.
6. China fears that any hostile country can choke it supplies at
strait of Malacca . The bottleneck feature of the strait allows
easy blockade.
China’s naval admiral Zhang Ming once said that India could
use Andaman and Nicobar islands as ‘iron curtain’ to block
China’s supplies at strait of Malacca.
China knows that India have tremendous control over Indian
ocean as well as significant strategically advantage over
Chinese Navy.
Moreover ,USA operates from small island Diego Garcia at the
center of
Indian ocean and it can easily block the Chinese ships.
The use of air force and land based batteries can easily deny
China use of this vital sea route.
7. China , to limit its dependency on this sea route tried several
alternatives like pipelines from Pakistan to Xinjiang and also
from Iran to China passing from India , Pakistan . But all those
were not put into action due to several reason such as length of
pipeline , difficult terrain and international objection
China presently has pipeline from Mynamar but it is very
vulnerable due to volatile situation of the country. China has
good links with Junta government but the recent closeness with
western countries is making China uneasy . It must be noted
that soon after taking office as president of USA , Barack
Obama visited Mynamar.
So China is completely dependent on strait of Malacca for
delivery of more than 4 million barrel of crude oil per day .
China requires about 5.62 million barrel of crude per day.
So , this is China’s Malacca delimma
8.
STRING OF PEARLS AND ITS
STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR
INDIA AND CHINA
AS we can see red line is what we gets when we join all ports in ‘string of pearls’ and it
is quite clear that it completely run parallely through its SLOC ( Sea Line Of
Communication) .
9. China claims its entry in Indian ocean will bring harmony in
the region and it has no intention to encircle India and negates
its influence. It further reiterates its old statement of wanting
‘peaceful rise’.
India should not fall for it as the same sweet statements from
China in 1950’s ended as war in 1962 .
Port at Myanmar will cut down China’s distance by 3000km
from Bay of Bengal which is controlled by India. Moreover it
will make Strait of Malacca in easy reach of China . An airstrip
in Myanmar will provide effective air cover for its supplies
and also in event of blockade.
Port at Sri Lanka will prove handy in reconnaissance of Indian
navy.
Gwadar port in Pakistan controlled by China will make India
vulnerable in the Arabian ocean and will pose problem if India
tried to take step against Pakistan like it did in 1971 and 1999 to
block Karachi port.
China
10. India rules the roost in Indian ocean but China’s entry will prove
detrimental for India . India’s relation with China had never been
hunky-dory . And China’s entry in Indian ocean will make the matter
worse as India had always been stabilizing agent in the world’s one
of the most strategic location of Indian ocean.
Several Chinese controlled ports in backyard will make Indian navy
uneasy . As for now there had been no confirmed news of military
capabilities of the ports and its for commercial use only.
But India has not recovered from 1962 dogma and is not in position
to overlook China’s treading in Indian ocean . China’s policy of
helping Pakistan , an arch rival of India in terms of military ,
infrastructure makes India much more suspicious of China . China
even helped Pakistan to build its nuclear weapons . China still has
not settled border issues with India which it has done with all other
countries.
China spent more than 2 billion dollars in developing Gwadar port
which is recently transferred to China by Pakistan.
India
11. India’s floundering foreign policy is the main cause because of
which China was able to build ports in neighbouring countries
of India.
India was not able to settle boundary issues with China when it
was at its weakest in 1950’s
Lack of attention towards Mynamar has caused and will cause
trouble in future. Mynamar is most strategic place for
containing China.
India’s bilateral relation with Srilanka is dicey . Once Mahela
Rajapakshe was asked about their new found friend China and
alienation towards India .to which Mhela replied that what
was offered to China was offered to India first.
12. India should make foreign policy stringent and think
more pragmatic .
India should take advantage of China’s dicey bilateral
relation with its neighbors for example Japan, Indonesia,
Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.
If India is able to improve relation with above mentioned
countries then China will be in same situation as India
and this will potentially break ‘String Of Pearls’.
Recently India witnessed sudden warmth in bilateral
relation between India and Japan and it has elicited
desperate comments from government run press of
China.
COUNTERING
STRINGS OF PEARL
