Is the idea of China's "string of pearls" a lie?????

black eagle

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We have all heard from various quarters both within & outside the govt how china is trying to encircle india through its 'string of pearls' strategy.. But just have a look at the article below as it refutes that idea.....

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=42332


Is China developing new port facilities along the Indian Ocean—the so-called string of pearls—to strengthen its military presence in South Asia and contain India?

The string of pearls argument is fraudulent—it's simply false. This concept was developed in the West to explain China's acquisition of strategic bases and construction of port facilities in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, but when it was examined by the U.S. government and other scholars, the theory was found baseless.

While Beijing has assisted governments and countries in developing ports with the help of Chinese companies, the assistance has primarily been designed to improve the abilities of these ports to operate as commercial entities and establish facilities where resources—primarily energy supplies—can be shipped inland. There is little—if any—evidence that the Chinese military is involved. It's a compelling idea that makes sense from afar, but a close look at the details reveals the flaws.
 

Yusuf

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I said the same a long time back here on DFI that the string of pearls is in no way a threat to india. It is used to secure its oil supply against any disruption of its ships carrying oil.
 

Armand2REP

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I said that long time ago. All the ports are commercial.
 

black eagle

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recently there was also a report where some ex indian navy chief claimed no chinese presence on coco island...
 

Yusuf

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I don't think there was talk of a listening post there not troops. China does not maintain troops in foreign countries I think. That is if you consider pakistan as foreign to china.
 

Tshering22

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I said that long time ago. All the ports are commercial.
How long do you think does it take the State Capitalist running CCP to pressure tiny island countries to host secret military posts there eh? For once, we don't know jack what Chinese do in the ports except for the outer "development work". True that the main purpose is commercial ports but it doesn't take long for an unpredictable country to pressure client states like Sri Lanka, Burma and Bangladesh to press for a military post there. Pakistan is already throwing the red carpet for them for a foreign base as this not just means another layer of protection from us to them but also additional revenue to their dilapidated economy.

String of pearls has a deep analysis behind it and even the military personnel are taking this threat seriously. 10 years ago, China didn't even have the J-10 ready. Today they are getting the J-20 ready. 5 years back, they had no bullet trains. Today they are world leaders in making them. China is unpredictable and that is what makes them such a difficult threat to deal with.

Now for US, France and other Western powers, it has become difficult to keep track of Chinese plans and thinking; then imagine how difficult it would be for us to keep a track of them. We are surrounded by their client states either with the entire nation's support or with each of those nations having some political party that is maintained by Chinese as a hedge against us.

For example, the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (they are more Talibanist than nationalist) or BNP is a direct result of mating Chinese funds with Pakistani mentality against Awami League or AL that is pro-India and friendly to us.

The Burmese Junta are now friendlier to us compared to a decade ago but even now they are too excessively dependent on Chinese for help, aid, infrastructure and trade compared to us. We are not having a big enough presence there to ensure that they are if not pro-India at least friendly neutral to cause any significant problems. This means Burmese though might have good intentions, they cannot do much to brush of Chinese pressure.

The aggressive Sinhala Nationalist Mahinda Rajapakse government in Sri Lanka is in fact inspired by Chinese CCP: it says that it is all friendly to India and this and that but it doesn't forget to shoot and kill our fishermen without any damn warning of arrest off coast the state of Tamil Nadu that too in OUR waters or for that matter brutalize Tamil people in Sri Lanka as a whole.

In Nepal again, the Hindu nationalist or royalist parties are friendly to India while Nepali Communist Party and Maoist Party are Chinese puppets operating for Beijing' favour in the country. Bhutan fortunately shares our own fears after PLA swallowed their territories to certain extent in 70s.

The Chinese tried that with Maldives and Mauritius but fortunately enough, our otherwise-dumb government managed to retain them enough in our fold to ensure that it is simply a commercial deal and doesn't "harm Indian interests".

You really think that they aren't trying? I would rather choose to believe this and take safeguards against it, rather than believe a US think tank that once predicted WMDs in Iraq. :der:

recently there was also a report where some ex indian navy chief claimed no chinese presence on coco island...
The same armed tri-services' Army chief claims that Chinese aggression into Ladakh is "perceptive mistake"....:ranger:
 

Yusuf

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China will not be powerful even 10 years down the line to effectively man foreign bases like the US does. It will not be able to support these bases. It will be sitting ducks for indian or US forces.
 

nimo_cn

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China will not be powerful even 10 years down the line to effectively man foreign bases like the US does. It will not be able to support these bases. It will be sitting ducks for indian or US forces.
That is why we have reiterated that the idea of "string of pearls" is totally a joke. How is China gonna be able to accomplish such an ambitious plan, which is apparently beyond Chinese ability, I believe Chinese policy makers are not that dumb to come up with such an unrealistic plan.
 

JBH22

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The Chinese tried that with Maldives and Mauritius but fortunately enough, our otherwise-dumb government managed to retain them enough in our fold to ensure that it is simply a commercial deal and doesn't "harm Indian interests".
In the case of Mauritius do you know that India is the second largest investor there but the Chines are quickly catching up they recently started a project called "JINFEI" which is an Economic Trade and Cooperation Zone to the great displeasure of Indian diplomats but Rs 10billion is a lot money.

India has some strong points though in Mauritius for eg an Indian diaspora majority state,their coast guard are formed and trained by Indian officers and even have officers on deputation in their helicopter squadron and even the security advisor to the PM is from RAW :)
Now all this will last only till INDIA continues to have the same economic clout.
 

Armand2REP

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How long do you think does it take the State Capitalist running CCP to pressure tiny island countries to host secret military posts there eh? For once, we don't know jack what Chinese do in the ports except for the outer "development work". True that the main purpose is commercial ports but it doesn't take long for an unpredictable country to pressure client states like Sri Lanka, Burma and Bangladesh to press for a military post there. Pakistan is already throwing the red carpet for them for a foreign base as this not just means another layer of protection from us to them but also additional revenue to their dilapidated economy.
It takes a long time to bring a commercial port up to the standards of a naval base. First you need structures to house personnel, hospital, mess halls, recreation facilities... have to build a small city. Then weapons depot has to be built. Special cranes and berths need to be added, you don't convert a commercial port to a naval base overnight. It takes years to add military infrastructure as well as a couple billion dollars. Any part of commercial port used for military will have to close off the whole area to commercial traffic. Host country will not like that at all.

String of pearls has a deep analysis behind it and even the military personnel are taking this threat seriously. 10 years ago, China didn't even have the J-10 ready. Today they are getting the J-20 ready. 5 years back, they had no bullet trains. Today they are world leaders in making them. China is unpredictable and that is what makes them such a difficult threat to deal with.
String of Pearls hypothesis has no basis in fact, not even qualifies for a theory. Show me one piece of evidence PLAN has personnel at any of these ports, any specific military infrastructure?

Now for US, France and other Western powers, it has become difficult to keep track of Chinese plans and thinking; then imagine how difficult it would be for us to keep a track of them. We are surrounded by their client states either with the entire nation's support or with each of those nations having some political party that is maintained by Chinese as a hedge against us.
What is so difficult to keep track of? China only has one strategy in these ports, to provide routes for their energy supply. Gwadar is not a naval base, it is a loading hub to ship by train goods to China so they can skip going past India. I think you overestimate their "client state" loyalty.

For example, the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (they are more Talibanist than nationalist) or BNP is a direct result of mating Chinese funds with Pakistani mentality against Awami League or AL that is pro-India and friendly to us.
You think Bangladesh will host a Chinese naval base? lol

The Burmese Junta are now friendlier to us compared to a decade ago but even now they are too excessively dependent on Chinese for help, aid, infrastructure and trade compared to us. We are not having a big enough presence there to ensure that they are if not pro-India at least friendly neutral to cause any significant problems. This means Burmese though might have good intentions, they cannot do much to brush of Chinese pressure.
\

Burma won't even buy discounted Chinese fighters... not much of a client state.

The aggressive Sinhala Nationalist Mahinda Rajapakse government in Sri Lanka is in fact inspired by Chinese CCP: it says that it is all friendly to India and this and that but it doesn't forget to shoot and kill our fishermen without any damn warning of arrest off coast the state of Tamil Nadu that too in OUR waters or for that matter brutalize Tamil people in Sri Lanka as a whole.
So you think Sri Lanka is dumb enough to host PLAN? That would be real smart only 20 minutes from an IAF bombing run. lol

In Nepal again, the Hindu nationalist or royalist parties are friendly to India while Nepali Communist Party and Maoist Party are Chinese puppets operating for Beijing' favour in the country. Bhutan fortunately shares our own fears after PLA swallowed their territories to certain extent in 70s.
I thought Nepal was friendly to India. Don't see them hosting a Chinese military base.

The Chinese tried that with Maldives and Mauritius but fortunately enough, our otherwise-dumb government managed to retain them enough in our fold to ensure that it is simply a commercial deal and doesn't "harm Indian interests".
China is buying a port in Greece too. You think they are turning that into a naval base?

You really think that they aren't trying? I would rather choose to believe this and take safeguards against it, rather than believe a US think tank that once predicted WMDs in Iraq. :der:
For somebody that has a string of pearls in the IOR, why did PLAN have to go begging France to use the Djibouti base? Why couldn't they port in Gwadar that they pay so much money to build? Their actions just don't fit the model.

The same armed tri-services' Army chief claims that Chinese aggression into Ladakh is "perceptive mistake"....:ranger:
Looking on Google Earth, I don't see anything that indicates presence of PLAN.
 

amoy

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India has some strong points though in Mauritius for eg an Indian diaspora majority state
In Mauritius there's also a "big" Chinese community, mostly Hakka/Cantonese. I have 2 friends who travelled to Sri Lanka for sight seeing. No wonder SL joined that fictioned "string of pearls". Being a neighbor to the world's no.4 economy doesnt help it at all
 

shuvo@y2k10

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well even if the string of pearls policy is true then the chinese bases would be too close to indian mainland and will be in striking distance of agni1/agni2. the most important thing is that we cannot understand the chinese properly.hence we should take all possible precautions because one thing is for sure- the chnese will confront us regarding strategic footprint in the indian ocean in the decades to come.and we should not relax and drop the "look-east" policy after this news as is the tendency of our government.
 

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