Posted on 02/17/2010 4:47:58 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
India Worries as China Builds Ports in South Asia
By VIKAS BAJAJ
HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka — For years, ships from other countries, laden with oil, machinery, clothes and cargo, sped past this small town near India as part of the world’s brisk trade with China.
Now, China is investing millions to turn this fishing hamlet into a booming new port, furthering an ambitious trading strategy in South Asia that is reshaping the region and forcing India to rethink relations with its neighbors.
As trade in the region grows more lucrative, China has been developing port facilities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and it is planning to build railroad lines in Nepal. These projects, analysts say, are part of a concerted effort by Chinese leaders and companies to open and expand markets for their goods and services in a part of Asia that has lagged behind the rest of the continent in trade and economic development.
But these initiatives are irking India, whose government worries that China is expanding its sphere of regional influence by surrounding India with a “string of pearls” that could eventually undermine India’s pre-eminence and potentially rise to an economic and security threat.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
India should be F-35 buyer, expand carrier program, subs...
Sounds like a delicate relationship India and China have. Obviously China has the upper hand and can manage it’s proxies to subtract from the force India can project towards China.
India plays the same game against the Chinese, in the South China Sea and the difference is that China has more antagonistic and worrisome neighbours than India. For example, Vietnam. Add to that Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Australia, all of which have serious concerns about China, and have held naval exercises with India regularly.
Australia is particularly worthy of mention, because our military ties with India go a lot deeper.
Plus, India has an active aircraft carrier, and China doesn’t. India has been training on carriers for over 50 years, while China is still constructing its first one, and will have to evolve logistics for using them, which isn’t an easy or quick task.
Plus I heard the Chinese have trouble making the “L” sound. That could cause massive carrier screwups. Randing pranes now. Reft fraps down. Randing gear stuck- can’t rower them. Right up the randing rights. Might as well name the first Chicomm carrier the Tower of Babel.
parsy, who thinks about practical things like this
When I was in Shanghai, our guide, to our great amusement tried very hard to say "Rolex" as in "Don't buy fake Rolex watches". But try as she might, she kept saying "Lolex". But for some strange reason (leason?) she could not say "railway" ; she kept saying "rev-way".
So I think that they can say "l" or "r", but not when they want/need to.
OT, but on the way to Shanghai Airport 2 yrs ago, I saw a sign saying
"Heavy (Light) vehicles only".
Am still trying to figure that one out.
It will probably take them a few decades to get the hang of carriers. By that time maybe the Vietnamese and Thailand and the Phillipines will have them too. Maybe even Japan. We probably have interesting times ahead. Global economic crisis and heavily armed nations.
parsy
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