China needs a mirror for itself

China is calling upon Asian countries, including Bangladesh, to "uphold independence, safeguard true multilateralism and avoid the Cold War mentality and bloc politics".

It is time to dissect what Liu Jinsong, director-general at the Chinese foreign ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, meant by such a statement; why China is urging Asian countries not to get entangled in bloc politics, and whether these countries should tag themselves with any grouping.

When Bangladesh was lectured not to join the Quad following Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe's Dhaka visit at the peak of the COVID pandemic, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen politely reminded Beijing that Bangladesh was a sovereign nation and will take a call on all such issues.

But he clarified that none had asked or offered Bangladesh to join Quad, the four-nation grouping of the US, Australia, Japan and India.

Momen was right and factual. Neither has the US proposed Bangladesh to join Quad directly nor has it done so through India. The US wants Bangladesh to sign two defence agreements. The draft of the GSOMIA agreement was approved in March and negotiations are on to finalise the Acquisition Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA).

But that certainly is not the same thing as an offer to join Quad. The Chinese tactic may be to fire an anticipatory salvo to rein in a small nation like Bangladesh.

By now, the Chinese should have understood Bangladesh does not succumb to force and resists any overbearing talk-down. The West got the proof of that when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, fed up with the World Bank's false allegations of corruption, went ahead with the Padma Bridge project with the country's own resources and finished it.

Despite the very extensive acceptance of foreign assistance to fund a wide range of infrastructure projects, Hasina has not made the mistake Sri Lanka made by exclusively depending on China. She ensured the contracts went to different countries and Bangladesh was not putting its eggs in one basket.

The Padma Bridge was constructed by a Chinese company but totally funded by Bangladesh's own resources.  The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is being constructed by the Russians. The Maitree thermal power plant project at Rampal is a joint venture with India's NTPC, while the Dhaka Metro Rail is funded by the Japanese. A Chinese company is doing the Karnaphuli tunnel while Dhaka's revamped airport is being funded by the Japanese; a Chinese company will partially build the Payra seaport, while a Belgian company is dredging the 75-km-long channel at Payra.

Hasina has engaged with all countries willing to offer financial assistance to fund her infrastructure ambitions without which she cannot sustain her phenomenal economic growth. Her policy is "Bangladesh First and Friendship with All".

So China cannot expect Bangladesh to be another Sri Lanka or Cambodia. It will only take Chinese-funded project proposals when it suits Bangladesh.

The Chinese are surely upset with Bangladesh for dropping their proposed deep-sea port project at Sonadia and handing the deep-sea port project at Matamuhuri to the Japanese. Also upsetting the Chinese could be Dhaka's refusal to accept the Chinese offer to fund a high-speed Dhaka-Chattogram railway network on grounds it was not required at the moment.

It is this strict assessment of accepting funding and clearing projects on a need basis and after calculations of payback capacity that Bangladesh has avoided the quagmire Sri Lanka or Pakistan find themselves in.

China may be Bangladesh's leading source of development assistance but it can never expect to emerge as the sole source.

The Chinese may suspect the US sanctions against seven security officials as a ploy to force Bangladesh to join Quad. Such suspicions, that explain Chinese sermons to avoid bloc politics, are ill-founded and way off the mark. Bangladesh will negotiate and lobby hard to end the sanctions because it does not want any adverse impact on its UN peacekeeping quotas for reasons well known. But it will not succumb or surrender to any pressure, especially with Hasina at the helm.

China also needs to examine why many Asian countries are drifting into military cooperation with each other. Why Vietnam, without being a Quad member, is developing close military ties with India?  The insecurity among these nations due to China's abandoning Deng's policy of 'peaceful rise' has led to a growing desire for military cooperation and alliances in Asia.

It is time Beijing stopped lecturing on bloc politics and figured out how its own aggressive actions were forcing countries to spend more on defence and develop military ties elsewhere.