China-India Engagement in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

In the recent years, besides impacts from the boundary issue and the trade deficit issue, the Indian Ocean issue is gradually emerging to become the key that must be taken into consideration when China and India are developing their bilateral and multi-lateral relationship in the future. As two typical representatives of developing countries, to expand interest boundaries externally so as to get a bigger develop-ment space is a necessary option for both China and India to further strengthen their national power and increase their regional influence. On one hand, the role of South Asia and the Indian Ocean for China's economic development is constantly growing more important; on the other hand, for India, which regards the Indian Ocean as its " backyard " , its rapid economic development over the recent years has been closely related to its implementation of the " Look East policy " of opening up since its market-oriented reform began. Yet competition between India and China, caused by their spreading and overlapping layers of commercial and political influence, will play out less on land than in a naval realm. 1 Despite continuous expansion of the two countries' common interest space in the Indian Ocean, stea-dily expanding of their overlapping strategic space, and increasing of their coop-eration needs, the competitive pressure seems to be steadily rising as well. If the divergence and competition between the two countries can't be properly managed and controlled, the strategic competition between China and India may turn into a geo-conflict, which will inevitably affect security cooperation and sharing of strategic benefits between them in the Indian Ocean. In order to prevent the strategic competition from turning into regional conflicts, we must analyze in-depth the two countries' pursuit of strategic interests and the overlapping points in their strategies as well as their potential conflicts in the Indian Ocean. Extending from the Strait of Hormuz in the Arabian Sea in the west, the Indian Ocean right to the Strait of Malacca in the east. The South Asia sub-continent constitutes a flank of the Middle East as the global oil center, which is the key junction of the maritime transportation passageway. Besides, the South Asia 1 Kaplan (2011a, b p. 13). Sub-continent also constitutes a hub connecting Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and Australia as well. The special location determines that the Indian Ocean and its adjacent waters will be a main battlefield for the big powers' strategic rivalry and fighting for resources and dominance. As mentioned before, 3 out of the 8 largest oil and gas reserve areas of the world are in the Indian Ocean region, namely, the Persian Gulf and its coastal areas, the coastal areas and the continental shelf of Indonesia, and Australia's northwestern continental shelf, and the combined reserve of these 3 areas accounts for over 70% of the world's total reserve. The Persian Gulf in the northwestern coast of the Indian Ocean is the world's largest oil production and supplying area, with its proven oil reserve accounting for over half of the world's total, and its annual output accounting for about 1/3 of the world's total annual output. This area has been widely known as the " storehouse of oil " , since the oil pumped out in this area is transported to all over the world through the Strait of Hormuz. The Middle East is the largest oil export area, with its oil exported accounting for 45% of the world's total export, and 75% of the oil produced in this area for export. With China and India, the two largest countries in terms of pop-ulation in the world, becoming middle class countries, their oil consumption is sharply increasing, which has resulted in that the passageways for oil tankers between the Persian Gulf, South Asia and South East Asia, are getting increasingly more crowded. The combination of continuously increasing energy demand, the pursuit of global strategic interests as a result of chasing the " Chinese Dream " and the " Indian Dream " , and forecasts made by various institution and media propaganda, unin-tentionally magnifies the potential interests in the Indian Ocean, and intensifies the rivalry in the region.