String Of Pearls Theory: The Chinese Dragon Tightening Around Asia

China is viewed as one of the biggest threats there is to world peace, second to Russia. Its communist autocracy concerns democracies all over the globe especially considering its economic rise and as the most quickly developing nation. The Chinese imperialistic aims are on full display with border disputes against India, allying with countries opposed to the West and democracies in general and debt-trapping nations that have crippling economies like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and many more.

China's Belt and Road Initiative is tying the world together—but what's the end game?

Focusing more on the debt trapping China’s plan of crashing economies and flinging nations is part of the bigger plan called ‘Belt and Road Initiative, which China masquerades as the philanthropic mission of providing economic aid and building infrastructure. This, in reality, is a systematic undermining of India and a measure taken to control Asia.

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An important quote by a historian named Alfred Their in his theory of sea dominance: ‘ Whoever conquers the Indian Ocean will dominate the whole of Asia’.the Indian ocean connects the international economies in the North Atlantic to the Asia -Pacific region. Secondly, the major sea routes connecting the middle east, Africa and East Asia with Europe and America lie in the Indian ocean.

The Indian Ocean is where 80 % of the entire world’s maritime oil trade flows through just three narrow passages Indian ocean these passages are at the strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Malacca, and the inlet of Bab-El Mandeb. These are the choke points; if these regions get choked, the central part of the world trade will reach a standstill. Other prominent areas include the Mozambique channel, the Suez Canal, the Thesunda strait and the Lombok Strait.

In an attempt to establish dominance over the strait of Hormuz, China has the guard put Pakistan on a 40-year lease. It also has its infrastructure and railway lines to Iran to establish dominance over the strait of Bab -El -Mandeb and the Suez canal. China has dead trapped Djibouti to build its naval base and capitalise on the Malacca Sunda channel in the Lombok strait. China has made a strategic alliance with Indonesia to develop its infrastructure Projects. Upon closer inspection, china has already established very close relations with the Mozambique government and has established control over a port called the Dar Es Salaam port in Tanzania. So China can easily block the trade routes of nations like India in case of an all-out war.

Additionally, the Indian Ocean is some of the most precious resources in the world. A large portion of the help of the Indian Ocean is yet to be explored, and it is said that 16.9% of the entire world’s reserves and 27.9% of natural gas reserves are in the Indian ocean itself. This string of pearls theory around India has been discussed for decades, and the interest in this has been renewed again due to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.