STRING OF PEARLS

Introduction

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.

WHY STRING OF PEARLS ?

LARGEST EXPORTER OF FINISHED GOODS

LARGEST IMPORTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES
THE MALACCA DILEMA

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.

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

 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.

 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

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) .

China
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.

India
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.

 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.

COUNTERING
STRINGS OF PEARL

India has made 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 also of rising tension in
SOUTH CHINA sea.
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.


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