China Woos Bangladesh with an invitation in Beijing

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

They will have conversations with Chinese government officials and senior members of the ruling Communist Party, confirmed the BBC delegation leader.

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

This includes a Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina, who lives in exile in India. Dhaka requested her extradition, but Delhi refused.

Abdul Myen Khan, a senior employee of the Nationalist Party in Bangladesh (BNP), who heads the Beijing delegation, told the BBC: “In essence, it is a visit to a goodwill initiated by Beijing.”

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

Many members of the delegation are from BNP and its allies. BNP, headed by former Prime Minister Begum Haleda Zia, is one of the main parties in Bangladesh, besides the Awami Liga led by Hasina.

The delegation also included several representatives of the student movement, who began the mass uprising against Hasina, which ultimately canceled the Prime Minister in August last year.

A temporary government, led by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, is currently running.

He calls on India to repatriate Hasina to face charges of crimes against humanity and money laundering, among other allegations. UN says the Hasina government against protesters during the uprising He killed about 1400 people.

So far, India has not shown signs of extradition of Hasina, which denies the allegations.

Delhi and Dhaka maintained close ties during Ms Hasina’s 15-year rule, which was widely regarded by her critics like Prooth. As she maintained close ties with Delhi, she balances him with her relationship with Beijing.

After the fall of Hasina, Beijing strengthened its interaction with leaders, activists and delegations of Bangladeshi, including Islamist parties.

This week, the visit follows a meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Policy Advisor Tukhid Hossein and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yie in Beijing in January.

He also noted a second time when BNP staff visited China in recent months after Beijing hosted a BNP delegation late last year.

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

China is the largest trading partner in Bangladesh with bilateral trading of about $ 24 billion (£ 19 billion) – the huge majority of them consists of Chinese exports to the South Asian country.

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

Compared to Beijing’s overtures, India has had very limited interactions with the Provisional Government and other political leaders in Bangladeshi over the last six months.

BNP was protesting in December claiming India’s intervention in Bangladesh’s internal matters by hosting Hasina. Some provisional government advisers have also criticized Delhi on the same issue.

This criticism caused a sharp reaction from Delhi.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanam Jaishankar said last week That Banglades was to decide on “what relationships they want with us”.

He described India’s criticism by employees and politicians in Bangladeshi as “absolutely ridiculous.”

Some claim that this increasingly harvest rhetoric between Dhaka and Delhi may push Bangladesh to China.

Recent events show that Bangladesh has joined South Asian colleagues Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal as a goal for both Delhi and Beijing, with the superpowers bumping for influence.

“I do not believe that India should believe that the whole subcontinent is under the sphere of influence of Delhi. This attitude would make India suffer,” Chinese analyst Zhou Bo, a senior associate at Beijing at the University of Qinghua, told the BBC.