ABSTRACT
For “the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation,” Xi Jinping launched his signature Belt and Road Initiative. This initiative, which encompasses roads and railway lines to ports and port cities and beyond, has brought China even closer to South Asia. It is China’s geographical proximity to South Asia that this chapter contextualizes before discussing how this gargantuan neighbour forges linkages with each country. Given that each of the eight countries of this region has a differentiated understanding, tenor and vision of China, a discussion of the bilateral engagement demonstrates China’s increasing embeddedness within the polity, economy and society at different layers and strata. The chapter interrogates whether the Xi Jinping era has enhanced both security and economic vulnerabilities not only for the region, where, on the one hand, the Sino–India rivalry is fuelled by the Sino–Pakistan axis and, on the other, the small, vulnerable countries, starved of funds for infrastructural development, have become mere pawns in China’s great game.
