China has time and again displayed its big brother attitude towards its smaller neighbours. Modi government ‘failed to foresee’ China’s aggression in the Himalayas, leading to the prolonged border standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh, top Indian geostrategist claims. The two Asian neighbours have been at loggerheads ever since China took over Tibet in the 1950s. China did not recognise the ‘McMahon Line’ dividing India and Tibet, as delineated by the 1914 Simla Accord. The differences led to the 1962 war in which China captured the disputed border areas in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. While it withdrew from the eastern front, China maintained its position in the west, thus unilaterally defining what is called the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Given China’s fear of growing Indian military power, it has been tightening its noose around Asia. Its erstwhile strategy of encircling India with the ‘String of Pearls’ theory was a failure and now desperately wants to check the ever-growing relationship between India and USA. This was quite evident when recently the Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, Li Jiming was quoted to be saying, “Obviously it will not be a good idea for Bangladesh to participate in this small club four (meaning the Quad) because it will substantially damage our bilateral relationship.” In course of his speech, he even branded the Quad as an ‘Asian NATO’.

Now, Quad is a group of four nations, as the name suggests, and includes India, USA, Australia and Japan. Interestingly, this group has, for the matter of fact, not even expressed any intend to include more countries, at least for the time being. This shows that how nervous China is currently with India and its allies. The Ladakh episode last year, where it had to suffer equal loss, India had proven its might both militarily and diplomatically. With India gaining the bonus points by helping its neighbours with Covid supplies and vaccines, it already enjoys a better rapport with many Asian countries. China has always expressed its discontent over India’s closeness with USA. China believes that the Quad is nothing but US effort to rallying countries around China to work against it. Though the Bangladesh government rebuffed the statement and urged the foreign envoy to maintain decency and decorum while speaking in public, the hold of China over Bangladesh was very evident in the episode.

For India, it would want to make as many friends as possible in its competition against China. However, the growing Hindutva agenda in India is not proving to be well suited for its ties with Bangladesh. The repeated mention of immigrants (Bangladeshi) by Indian Prime Minister Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah seems to be not going down well in Dhaka. Though the BJP led NDA government has stated that the immigrant problem is an internal issue of the country and that Bangladesh has nothing to worry, it is quite evident which way the people start moving once the immigrants are chased away. Bangladesh has already mentioned that no Bangladeshi is living in India illegally and hence made it clear that no one will be taken in from the Indian borders. At a time when India needs more allies in Asia, especially when it’s a neighbour, the next move of the Indian foreign ministry will be interesting.