China's new railway to Tibet has the potential to significantly alter the nation's trading and military relationships with South Asia, analysts say.
China promotes the line connecting the Tibetan capital of Lhasa with the rest of China, which opened on Saturday, as a key to developing the isolated Himalayan region known as the "roof of the world."
The government has already announced plans to extend the line from Lhasa to the edge of South Asia, with tracks to be laid all the way to the strategically important town of Yadong near the Indian border over the next decade.
Yadong, also known as Chomo in Tibet and Yatung in India, is 31km southwest of Lhasa, 100km from the Bhutanese capital Thimphu and 450km from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.
Observers say China's ability to access South Asia's markets will grow dramatically once the rail network has been expanded to Yadong, and even just the service from Lhasa would be of benefit.
"As China is one of the world's emerging economic powers, the new transportation service means that they will have an opportunity to dominate the South Asian market in the future," said Rajeshwor Acharya, an economist and former Nepalese ambassador to China.
"The flow of cheap Chinese goods will increase, which will have a negative impact on local industry in the South Asian countries."
In a sign of things to come, China and India will reopen on Thursday the Nathu La Himalayan pass, part of the famed Silk Road trading route, which had been closed since the two nations fought a brief border war in 1962.
The pass is just 30km from Yadong and has already been described by both countries as an important new avenue for bilateral trade.
However, not all in South Asia are fearful of China's expanding access to the region, with some in Nepal saying the kingdom will be able to reduce its trade dependence on India.
"It's a rosy prospect for Nepal to increase business with China," said Bijaya Ghimire, president of the business journalists' association in Nepal.
"So far Nepalese goods have only been able to reach the peripheral market of Tibet but with the operation of the railway, the products could penetrate the mainland China market," Ghimire said.
"At present 65 percent of Nepal's total international business including imports and exports is with India, whereas with China, it is less than 5 percent," Ghimire said
Some other analysts said the railway to Lhasa could be more of a concern for India on the military front rather than the economic one.
"It will significantly augment China's offensive military capability against India," said Brahma Chellany of the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research.
"At short notice, China will be able to intensify military pressure on India by rapidly mobilizing up to 12 divisions," Chellany said.
"The new railway facilitates the easy transport of intermediate-range missiles and would allow China to rail-base in Tibet some of its intercontinental ballistic missiles," Chellany said.
"China indeed has designed its latest ICBM, the DF-31A, as a rail-mobile weapon," Chellany said.
Rahul Bedi, correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly, said China was surrounding India by nurturing relations with Pakistan in the west, Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east and Sri Lanka in the south.
"If you join all the dots and look at Chinese activities in the region, it is effectively the Chinese encircling India -- using the ring of pearls strategy in the Indian Ocean region and a policy of encirclement in the mountainous area of Tibet," Bedi said.
However China stresses its peaceful intentions and its relations with India have improved in recent years, as evidenced by this week's reopening of the Nathu La pass.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
RSS