What is particularly shocking is that while China’s military dominance over Tibet and economic dominance over Pakistan , which are part of China’s territorial expansion strategies , are clearly evident, Sri Lankan government seems to learn nothing from China’s actions in Tibet and Pakistan.
by N.S.Venkataraman
China is now celebrating the 70th anniversary of China’s atrocities in Tibet , when China forcibly entered Tibet, massacred thousands of protesting Tibetan people and forced the respected the Dalai Lama to leave Tibet along with his followers and flee to India as refugees. Over the last seventy years, China has tightened it’s control over Tibet with ruthless administration and by keeping the Tibet region behind the iron curtain. The world’s “conscience” remains unconcerned about the plight of Tibet , as the countries are more concerned about the trade and economic benefits that they get from China and not about human rights violation and aggression of China in Tibet.
Control over Pakistan :
While China “conquered” Tibet by force, it is now adopting an alternate strategy to gain control over Pakistan and China appears to have already succeeded in bringing Pakistan under it’s control to a very large extent. Under the guise of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) scheme , which is a collection of infrastructure projects that are under construction throughout Pakistan since 2013 , and by deploying technology and providing loan,China has gained nearly total control over Pakistan now, making it impossible for Pakistan to relieve itself out of China’s control in the foreseeable future.
As part of the CPEC scheme, China is involved in implementing several projects and schemes in Pakistan and have extended huge loan to Pakistan ,which Pakistan will never be able to pay back, China has now gained total control over the critical Gwadar Port in Pakistan, which is situated on the shores of the Arabian Sea in the city of Gwadar, located in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The port is located 533 km from Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, and is approximately 120 km from the Iranian border. This is a very critical and strategic project for China and China will never give up it’s control over Gwadar port at any time.
While murmurs of protest by people are heard in Pakistan against China’s increasing influence, if such protests were to become massive in the coming years, China will not hesitate to use force to get complete military control over Pakistan in the name of defending it’s economic interest, in the same way that it has done in Tibet.
Control over Sri Lanka :
What is particularly shocking is that while China’s military dominance over Tibet and economic dominance over Pakistan , which are part of China’s territorial expansion strategies , are clearly evident, Sri Lankan government seems to learn nothing from China’s actions in Tibet and Pakistan.
The Sri Lanka Parliament has passed the Port City Economic Commission Bill, which officially declares 269 hectares of land reclaimed from the ocean and annexed to the city of Colombo as the country's first special economic zone (SEZ) for services-oriented industries.
The CHEC Port city Colombo company, a unit of China communications Construction company, invested $14 billion for reclamation of land and construction of infrastructure adjacent to the port of Colombo.. In return , the Chinese company obtained the right to use 62 hectares (153 acres) of marketable land on a 99 year lease from the Sri Lankan government, according to the project’s website.
Sri Lanka has already lost the Hambentota port by virtually handing over the port to the Chinese company. Though there is a clause that China will not use Hambentota port for military purposes, Sri Lankan government can do nothing if China would do so.
With land area of Sri Lanka not being very large and with the above two critical projects now going under China’s control, there is no doubt that the Sri Lankan government has allowed China to have a strong foothold to a significant extent. With a few more projects in Sri Lanka now being executed by China, the question remains as to whether the Chinese dragon will give up it’s control over Sri Lanka at any time in future.
Knowing the ground reality that China has definite expansionist greed and it is a highly self centred and dictatorial government, Sri Lanka should have been extremely cautious in it’s dealings with China. For whatever reasons, the present government in Sri Lanka has failed to exercise the much needed caution in dealing with China. Sri Lanka already has taken a huge loan from China and it is not in a position to repay the loan in the foreseeable future. In such circumstances, Sri Lanka has unwittingly driven itself to a scenario , where it is at the mercy of China.
How the future will view the present rulers in Pakistan and Sri Lanka ?
While many discerning observers all over the world clearly understand the expansionist motives of Chinese government, it is surprising that the rulers in Pakistan and Sri Lanka do not see the writing on the wall.
The future historians will view the control that China has gained over Pakistan and Sri Lanka as due to the historical mistakes of the rulers of these two countries.
While the world will view Tibet with sympathy as a victim of aggression, it will view the rulers of Pakistan and Sri Lanka as responsible for reducing the country to the level of willing tools in the hands of China.
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