Table of Contents
CURRENT AFFAIRS
- China’s President Xi Jinping is on a visit to Myanmar to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Myanmar.
RELEVANCE
- GS Paper 2
- International Relations
DETAILS OF THE VISIT
- President’s visit will focus on the three pillars of the China Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC)— the Kyaukpyu Special Economic Zone, the China-Myanmar Border Economic Cooperation Zone and the New Yangon City.
CMEC
- CMEC is a branch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Indian Ocean.
- The CMEC to the Bay of Bengal is the replica of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that connects Beijing’s western province of Xinjiang to Karachi and Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
HISTORY
- The East India Company and the British Raj were eager to develop connectivity into Yunnan through Burma to promote trade between India and western China.
- In the late 19th century, the Indian Railways surveyed the route for a railway line from the Arakan coast (Myanmar) to Yunnan (China), but could not implement it.
- China will be implementing it now.
HIGHLIGHTS OF VISIT
- Connectivity and Infrastructure.
- Greater connectivity between China’s southwestern province of Yunnan and the eastern Indian Ocean.
- The major infrastructure projects like the development of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and a deep-sea port at Kyaukpyu.
- The construction of a railway line from the China border to Mandalay in central Myanmar will be discussed.
- The railway will connect Kyaukpyu on the western seaboard of Myanmar and Yangon in the south where the Irrawaddy River flows into the Bay of Bengal.
- Revive the hydel dam at Myitsone and the copper mining project that had to be suspended a decade ago
ECONOMIC RELATION
- It will reinforce China’s status as the most important economic partner of Myanmar, and rejuvenate the historic special relationship between the two countries.
DIPLOMACY
- China has played the role of mediator between Myanmar and Bangladesh in the issue of
- China is making the case that some of its BRI projects can help alleviate the Rohingya conflict by accelerating the development of the Arakan
- By developing ports such as the Gwadar and Kyaukpyu, China aims to lower its strategic dependence on the Malacca straits.
MALACCA STRAITS
- The vital trade link between the Indian and the Pacific oceans.
- It is the Indo-Pacific Command of the U.S.
HISTORICAL RELATIONS
- CMEC enforces the centuries old idea of Southern Silk Road by China.
IMPACT ON INDIA
- This project signify larger maritime presence and naval engagement of China in the
- It also reinforces the string of pearls policy by
STRING OF PEARLS
- The String of pearls is a geopolitical theory referring to the network of Chinese military and commercial facilities extended from the Chinese mainland to Port Sudan in the Horn of Africa.
- But this theory is denied by China and it views its actions as their efforts to strengthen a new maritime Silk Road.
CHINA-NEPAL ECONOMIC CORRIDOR (CNEC)
- Like CMEC and CPEC, China is also developing the China-Nepal Economic Corridor (CNEC) which will link Tibet to
- The endpoints of the project will touch the boundaries of the Gangetic plain.
- Thus three corridors signify the economic as well as strategic rise of China in the Indian
STEPS TO BE TAKEN BY INDIA
- Focus on making a more effective contribution to Myanmar’s development and
- Focus on quickly completing its own infrastructure projects in Myanmar.
- Strengthen its collaboration with like-minded partners like Japan which has a growing economic presence in Myanmar.
- India’s Act East Policy and Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy can be combined.
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