China woos Bangladesh in Beijing trip

A 22-member Bangladeshi delegation of political leaders, civil society activists, academics and journalists have begun a 10-day visit to China.

They will be having talks with Chinese government officials and senior members of the ruling Communist Party, a delegation leader confirmed with the BBC.

Analysts say China is making overtures while diplomatic tensions have risen between Bangladesh and India on a range of issues.

This includes ousted Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina living in exile in India. Dhaka has requested her extradition but Delhi has refused.

Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior official from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who’s leading the delegation in Beijing, told the BBC: “It’s basically a goodwill visit, initiated by Beijing.”

“It is unique because China this time has invited a team representing various groups in Bangladesh.”

Many of the delegation members are from the BNP and its allies. The BNP, headed by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, is one of the main parties in Bangladesh, besides the Awami League led by Hasina.

The delegation also includes several representatives from the student movement that began the mass uprising against Hasina that eventually ousted the prime minister in August last year.

An interim government, led by the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is currently in charge.

It has been urging India to repatriate Hasina to face charges of crimes against humanity and money laundering, among other allegations. The UN says Hasina’s government’s crackdown on protesters during the uprising killed about 1,400 people.

So far India has showed no sign of extraditing Hasina, who denies the charges.

Delhi and Dhaka had maintained close ties during the 15-year rule of Ms Hasina, who was widely seen by her critics as pro-India. While maintaining close ties with Delhi, she balanced it with her relationship with Beijing.

After the fall of Hasina, Beijing has stepped up its interaction with Bangladeshi leaders, activists and delegations, including from Islamist parties.

This week’s visit follows a meeting between the Bangladesh interim government’s foreign policy advisor Touhid Hossain and the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing in January.

It also marks the second time BNP officials have visited China in recent months, after Beijing hosted a BNP delegation late last year.

With the political vacuum and absence of India’s influence, analysts say, Beijing is trying to increase its foothold in Bangladesh, a country of about 170 million people.

China is Bangladesh’s largest trading partner with bilateral trade amounting to around $24bn (£19bn) – the vast majority of that consists of Chinese exports to the South Asian country.

The Bangladeshi military also heavily relies on Chinese equipment and ammunition with more than 70% of supplies coming from China.

Compared to Beijing’s overtures, India has had very limited interactions with the interim government and other Bangladeshi political leaders in the past six months.

The BNP held a protest in December alleging India’s interference in Bangladesh’s internal matters by hosting Hasina. Some advisors of the interim government have also criticised Delhi on the same issue.

This criticism has sparked sharp reaction from Delhi.

The Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last week that it was up to Bangladesh to decide on “what kind of relationship they want with us”.

He described the criticism of India by Bangladeshi officials and politicians as “absolutely ridiculous”.

Some argue that this increasingly tense rhetoric between Dhaka and Delhi could push Bangladesh towards China.

The latest events indicate that Bangladesh has joined fellow South Asian countries Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal as a target for both Delhi and Beijing, as the superpowers jostle for influence.

“I don’t believe India should consider the whole subcontinent is under Delhi’s sphere of influence. That attitude would make India suffer,” Chinese analyst Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, told the BBC.