The two incidents in India and Pakistan over the course of a week have shown that the coverage of terrorism by the Chinese media ecosystem largely reinforces the state’s foreign policy narratives and preferences for alignment in South Asia. Pakistan emerges as a clear preference for the public, which is reinforced by commentators and opinion makers on non-state news media platforms.
CPEC 2.0 is expected to serve as a major leverage tool for China to access Afghanistan’s untapped natural resources and enhance connectivity to Pakistan and Central Asia. However, for Afghanistan, the initiative may be more of a challenge than an opportunity. Countries such as Sri Lanka and the Maldives have already faced severe economic consequences from poorly structured Chinese-funded projects.
China's rise has, in the consensus view of most international relations scholars, fundamentally changed South Asia. The old, India-centric region is gone. Pakistan has tied its future to Beijing, seeing China as its ultimate guarantor. Bangladesh has played a smart game, using Chinese money for national development while maintaining its "friendship-to-all" foreign policy. The Teesta project shows Dhaka's new confidence in following its own national interest. For India, the challenge is immense, as it must now compete for influence in its own backyard.
India's increased naval exercises, combined with its Indo-Pacific ambitions and Western partnerships, indicate a shift from coastal defense to regional management. For smaller coastal states, such patterns can readily translate into worry, not from an impending threat, but from an inferred sense of power. When a major power operates near contested or shared spaces, the neighbors are obligated to interpret purpose through action.
When the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) met in Mumbai last month, an audio clip of Sajid Mir directing the 26/11 terrorists at the Chabad House Jewish cultural centre was played to focus on the role of the terrorist under Beijing protection at the UN.
The rise of nationalist sentiments globally and in Europe, as seen in the premiership of Giorgia Meloni in Italy and Rishi Sunak in Britain, are conflating political circumstances for a global pushback against China’s actions where these countries are ready to call out China in a more forthright manner.
A forceful "unification" of Taiwan has been projected by most analysts as happening within the next five years of Xi’s new third term, as he will need this to cement a history-making legacy that will help him extend his rule for life
Bangladesh negotiated with India for 35 years, but the negotiations did not make any headway due to the river's importance to West Bengal. So Bangladesh has to look for other solutions where advanced Chinese technologies and experiences may have something to offer.
This partnership is also mutually driven by concerns over China’s territorial and naval expansion in its neighbourhood. As India prepares for the Malabar exercise being hosted by Japan this year, the focus should be on providing a stable, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
Taipei needs full regional support for its survival and in its efforts to repel a Chinese invasion; it cannot afford to be distracted by other lingering issues with other neighbours, including Japan, which Beijing is happy to exploit to its advantage.
"The National Defense Strategy is really premised on this urgent need to sustain and strengthen deterrence with the focus on the People's Republic of China," the US official said.
Myanmar's military junta is facing fierce resistance from various ethnic minorities. A shadow government, called National Unity Government (NUG), was formed to counter the military government. The shadow government has already appealed to the international community for support, to which the United States, the European Union and ASEAN member states have responded.
Experts have even called for Japan to deepen bilateral security cooperation with India, Britain and France, countries that have shown a new resoluteness towards Chinese actions in the Indo-Pacific.
No country comes close to China’s sophisticated influence-seeking tools and the way it leverages its soft power. The relentless pursuit by Chinese propagandists, out to stake their claim on the global information order, are challenges that the independent global information order needs to meet.
The launching of supply chain resilience in the Indo-Pacific region is another attribute of the rising interest in India. India’s strong leadership in the region evokes new opportunities to reap benefits from its low-cost hub, laden with high IT technology.
Colonna tweeted in French that it was the “launch of a new trilateral format in the #Indo-Pacific zone with India and the Emirates“ with “a common ambition to move forward in 4 areas: #security and #defence, #Climate, #Technologies and people(-to-people) exchanges”.
Professor Thussu says, ”Although New Delhi remains a traditional friend of Dhaka, the growing presence of China in Bangladesh and elsewhere in South Asia, makes it difficult for Hasina to prioritize India over China: the scale and depth of Chinese investment, aid etc. can’t be matched by India.”
In this regard, both ASEAN and Malaysia seem to have lost their appeal to the West for a deeper security foothold, with Washington realising that the current situation of the region's pandering to Beijing makes it difficult for the US to establish rooted military alliances and placement of strategic anti-missile capacities, among others
Not surprisingly, India has not come out with any condemnation of China for its atrocities in Xinjiang, a classic example of India in recent times trying to steer clear of global contestations
