2. It is the term given by U.S analysts to Chinas doctrine for
securing its SLOC (Sea Line Of Communication) String of pearls
refers to series of ports and infrastructure built covering China
SLOC. Each pearl refers to the nodes of economic and millitary
influence of China generally in form of ports. At present it has
ports in Hanin , Sittwe (Myanmar) , Hambantota (Srilanka) ,
Chittagong (Bangladesh) and Gwadar (Pakistan). Efforts are there
from China to include Maldives , Thailand , Malaysia in its
doctrine. Introduction 3. Hu Jintao former president of China in
2003 once stated his apprehensions regarding the vulnerability of
its SLOC. He termed his apprehensions as Malacca Dilemma String of
Pearls is a doctrine to extricate China from its Malacca dilemma.
To understand String of Pearls it is imperative to understand this
apprehension. WHY STRING OF PEARLS ? 4. MALACCA DILEMMA Malacca
strait is in Indian ocean which connects Indian and pacific ocean
and worlds 25% of trade passes through this strait. Countries like
China , Japan , South Korea are heavily depended on this sea route
for all their supply especially energy. 5. In picture above, dark
blue line shows the sea route through which Chinas energy supplies
passes. You can clearly see the bottleneck feature of Malacca
strait . This sea route is lifeline to Chinas rapid
industrialization and economic growth but China have negligible
strategic control over this sea route. 6. China fears that any
hostile country can choke it supplies at strait of Malacca . The
bottleneck feature of the strait allows easy blockade. Chinas naval
admiral Zhang Ming once said that India could use Andaman and
Nicobar islands as iron curtain to block Chinas supplies at strait
of Malacca. China knows that India have tremendous control over
Indian ocean as well as significant strategically advantage over
Chinese Navy. Moreover ,USA operates from small island Diego Garcia
at the center of Indian ocean and it can easily block the Chinese
ships. The use of air force and land based batteries can easily
deny China use of this vital sea route. 7. China , to limit its
dependency on this sea route tried several alternatives like
pipelines from Pakistan to Xinjiang and also from Iran to China
passing from India , Pakistan . But all those were not put into
action due to several reason such as length of pipeline , difficult
terrain and international objection China presently has pipeline
from Mynamar but it is very vulnerable due to volatile situation of
the country. China has good links with Junta government but the
recent closeness with western countries is making China uneasy . It
must be noted that soon after taking office as president of USA ,
Barack Obama visited Mynamar. So China is completely dependent on
strait of Malacca for delivery of more than 4 million barrel of
crude oil per day . China requires about 5.62 million barrel of
crude per day. So , this is Chinas Malacca delimma 8. STRING OF
PEARLS AND ITS STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA AND CHINA AS we can
see red line is what we gets when we join all ports in string of
pearls and it is quite clear that it completely run parallely
through its SLOC ( Sea Line Of Communication) . 9. China claims its
entry in Indian ocean will bring harmony in the region and it has
no intention to encircle India and negates its influence. It
further reiterates its old statement of wanting peaceful rise.
India should not fall for it as the same sweet statements from
China in 1950s ended as war in 1962 . Port at Myanmar will cut down
Chinas distance by 3000km from Bay of Bengal which is controlled by
India. Moreover it will make Strait of Malacca in easy reach of
China . An airstrip in Myanmar will provide effective air cover for
its supplies and also in event of blockade. Port at Sri Lanka will
prove handy in reconnaissance of Indian navy. Gwadar port in
Pakistan controlled by China will make India vulnerable in the
Arabian ocean and will pose problem if India tried to take step
against Pakistan like it did in 1971 and 1999 to block Karachi
port. China 10. India rules the roost in Indian ocean but Chinas
entry will prove detrimental for India . Indias relation with China
had never been hunky-dory . And Chinas entry in Indian ocean will
make the matter worse as India had always been stabilizing agent in
the worlds one of the most strategic location of Indian ocean.
Several Chinese controlled ports in backyard will make Indian navy
uneasy . As for now there had been no confirmed news of military
capabilities of the ports and its for commercial use only. But
India has not recovered from 1962 dogma and is not in position to
overlook Chinas treading in Indian ocean . Chinas policy of helping
Pakistan , an arch rival of India in terms of military ,
infrastructure makes India much more suspicious of China . China
even helped Pakistan to build its nuclear weapons . China still has
not settled border issues with India which it has done with all
other countries. China spent more than 2 billion dollars in
developing Gwadar port which is recently transferred to China by
Pakistan. India 11. Indias floundering foreign policy is the main
cause because of which China was able to build ports in
neighbouring countries of India. India was not able to settle
boundary issues with China when it was at its weakest in 1950s Lack
of attention towards Mynamar has caused and will cause trouble in
future. Mynamar is most strategic place for containing China.
Indias bilateral relation with Srilanka is dicey . Once Mahela
Rajapakshe was asked about their new found friend China and
alienation towards India .to which Mhela replied that what was
offered to China was offered to India first. 12. India should make
foreign policy stringent and think more pragmatic . India should
take advantage of Chinas dicey bilateral relation with its
neighbors for example Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea and
Taiwan. If India is able to improve relation with above mentioned
countries then China will be in same situation as India and this
will potentially break String Of Pearls. Recently India witnessed
sudden warmth in bilateral relation between India and Japan and it
has elicited desperate comments from government run press of China.
COUNTERING STRINGS OF PEARL 13. THANK YOU
