Roving Periscope: ‘Upset,’ B’desh PM Hasina cuts short China visit, returns

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Feeling ‘cheated,’ an ‘upset’ Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed cut short her four-day China visit by a day and returned home on Wednesday, the media reported on Saturday.

Beijing reportedly promised Dhaka USD 5 billion in loan assistance before her much-publicized visit. But it provided only USD 137 million.
However, China may not be entirely at fault. Its own economy is faltering, exports falling, and it recently returned its “all-weather” ally Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also ‘empty-handed.’ Not just this, Beijing has also cut short investments in the ongoing projects under the USD 62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of the USD 200 billion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

So, PM Hasina is not the only leader getting a short shift in China. NATO has also threatened China with consequences because of its support to Russia in the Ukraine war and Beijing does not want to ‘waste’ money.

According to reports, PM Hasina was ‘upset’ over Beijing’s failure to fulfill its promise of adequate financial support and not extending the appropriate protocol to her.

Days after visiting India, PM Hasina went on a four-day official tour to China but returned a day earlier on Wednesday. It indicated that her objectives for the visit were not met, the report said.

A post on social media platform X shared by PM Hasina’s Awami League party on July 10 said China had announced economic assistance of only 1 billion Yuan (USD 137.64 million) to Bangladesh.

Her bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping also did not last as long as she had anticipated, nor did Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi call on the visiting PM as was expected under the protocol.

PM Hasina’s party has extensively covered the details of her China trip on the party’s X handle, including her meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Li Qiang. However, no images were shared of her meeting with the Chinese foreign minister.

Many in Dhaka also lamented that the Chinese media did not give adequate coverage to PM Hasina’s visit, a rarity as the state-run official media tend to give prominent exposure to visiting leaders.

Upon her arrival in Beijing, Awami League shared images on Monday and noted that the two nations were expected to sign 20 to 22 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) during the trip. This post by the Awami League confirmed that Hasina’s trip would be for four days. However, the post shared on July 11 said that the official trip lasted only three days.

Another post said the two nations signed 16 MoUs for cooperation in trade and technology.

On July 10, the ruling party said the two nations had announced seven outcomes, including the conclusion of a joint feasibility study on the Bangladesh-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA).