China's far-flung influence (part 4)

There is no doubt that relations between China and India have improved markedly. Trade is up. Premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seem to have a warm relationship.

But mistrust lingers among the onetime rivals, and it shows up in unusual places.

In recent days, the mistrust has surged amid a change of government in The Maldives, a luxury tourist destination of 1,190 islands (that's it above, get your bathing suit on). The islands sit in a strategic location amid sea lanes going from the Middle East to Asia.

A change of government is unusual enough in the Maldives. Outgoing President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom (repeat that 20 times!) ruled the Maldives for three decades. The new leader is a former political prisoner.

If Indian news reports are any indication, the change of government has been a wake-up call for India about China’s inroads in the Maldives.

One of India’s chief wire services, the Indo-Asian News Service, carried a story Monday with the following paragraph:

“Some Maldives watchers in India have expressed concerns at China’s efforts to scale up its economic and strategic presence in the Maldives that may pose a threat to India’s interests. They cite China’s funding of many development projects in the Maldives and allude to reports about China entering into a deal to build a naval base in one of the Maldives islands.”

China, for one, helped build a new foreign ministry for the Maldives following the devastation of the 2004 Asian tsunami that left more than 200,000 people dead.

India’s vice president, Hamid Ansari, was peppered with questions by Indian journalists as he arrived in the Maldivian capital, Male, for the inauguration of the new leader, Mohamed Nasheed (seen above).

According to the Press Trust of India, another major wire service, Ansari said: “I do not know how credible those reports are. The President-elect (Nasheed) was in India some time back and he himself doubted those reports."

China’s ties to the Maldives are not new. Records from the Ming Dynasty show Chinese mariners arrived in the Maldives in the 15th Century.

Chinese tourism to the Maldives is rising rapidly. Last year, 35,000 tourists went.

All of us in this part of the world certainly know about the Maldives, with their catchy television jingle about the “Sunny side of Life.”

Even if China were looking to set up a base in the Maldives, it may not be there long. On coming to office this week, Nasheed proposed buying land abroad in case sea levels rise and swamp the island nation. He wants to relocate the entire country.

Comments

[xingbo]

Chinese are driving the capitalist markets and innovations like this biology search engine VADLO. Its powerful search function and Cartoons are the measure of chinese ingenuity.