Abuse,Free Court,More Trade Should Be On The Table

Free court, concerns over abuse of right, Flexibility towards foreign businesses Not only make the future bright, Also dispel doubts and differences.

In short span of time, two high officials of two powerful countries will visit Bangladesh. First Chinese Foreign Minister will make an unprecedented official trip to Bangladesh to galvanize strategic relations¹. Immediately after him a high official of US government will come to visit Bangladesh all the way from Delhi.

Many here see the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister as a mean to gather support for the ongoing tensions in the Taiwan straits. But Bangladesh already stressed “One China” policy,as a marginalized nation this is the alternative it has to adopt, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently reiterated that in a communiqué. Anticipations are high on the air that the visit will boost trade and investment and strategic partnership. Govt has already made it clear that it will not take any new loans following the turmoil in Sri Lanka and the ensuing controversy about Chinese projects. Strategic partnership is already there,signed during the tenure of General Belal as chief of Army staff and bypassing the Parliament. It witnessed a stagnant spell when the Rohingya crisis arrived on our shore and Chinese support for the Myanmar in international arena. Strengthening the military capability of Bangladesh is at the heart of this strategic partnership, conceived in the context of necessity to position soldiers along the borders of Bangladesh’s neighbors in the time heightened tensions. This local arms race in Bay of Bengal is drawing it closer to both Bangladesh and Myanmar. But this growing strategic partnership has a cost. With rising military strategic partnership, authoritarian quarter in Bangladesh is also gaining power. Chinese Communist Party is indeed a brilliant organization when it comes to develop human resources at home,to ensure rights and dignity of vulnerable groups of the society and to deliver justice in China. But when it comes to talk about the human rights situation, decay of governance in the countries under its sphere of influence it prefers to take a back seat. There is no concept of human rights report or governance report or freedom of speech report on other countries in China. If the Chinese Communist Party could initiate this, it will be an enormous help to the democracies in distress.

Bilateral trade is still in sorry state. In 2019-20,Bangladesh imported $11.49 billion worth of goods from China. In 2020-21,the import rose to $12.95 billion. In 2018-19,our export to China was $590 million, in 2019-20 it declined to 499 million and in 2020-21 export improved slightly to $566 million,but never reached the 2018-19 figure². So trade deficit keeps rising. Not only that China is investing heavily in RMG automation so that lower end RMG factories could not move to the lower wage countries. This is hurting countries like Bangladesh that benefitted tremendously in the past from the footloose nature of RMG industries, factories relocated in the lower wage countries when the wage rose significantly. Not only that its “zero dollar tourism” policy,every penny spent by Chinese tourist went to the pocket of Chinese tour operators, often hurt local industries as it happened in the Myanmar. In Bangladesh, we have witnessed with great pain that many big infrastructure projects have negligible Bangladeshi presence. More Bangladeshi engineers ,companies could have been taken on board to improve their portfolios. China could easily lift Sri Lanka out of this dismal state by ordering PLAN to do paint job of its vessels in the dollar-strapped country or by directing a portion of Chinese tourists in the country. That did not happen. Ignoring the strategic partnership it deals with Sri Lanka like a creditor and borrower.

And we do not see any formidable presence of Bangladeshi companies in bilateral trade. We would like to see more and more Bangladeshi manufacturers export their goods to China,bring the money back to the country and Bangladeshi companies' access to critical industrial technologies get serious attention. Unfortunately when it comes to dispute settlement ,Chinese legal system has yet to display its independence and its ability to act independently. As an ordinary Bangladeshi,I would like to know whether Chinese legal system could take stand against the state if the cause is just. For trade and commerce related dispute settlement this independent court is quintessential to deliver justice. For instance,in the past we witnessed many Bangladeshis and Bangladeshi companies got the verdict on their side in foreign courts. In USA,we see many individuals sued the federal govt and won. In India,many Bangladeshi victims got court ruling in favor of them securing compensation from the perpetrators. Is Chinese legal system ready to take such just stance? Chinese Communist Party is an ingenuous organization and can think ahead of times. As an ordinary Bangladeshi I hope China will raise its voices on protecting human rights and strethenting democracies,will distance itself from authoritarian regimes,will allow foreign businesses to play more role in bilateral trade and will have an independent judiciary that can even go against it instead of confining itself into the narrow concept of military strategic partnership that does little help to ordinary people.

Notes And References:

1. “China Pororashtromontri'r Alochona'r Table E Ki Thakche(What Is On The Discussion Table Of Chinese Foreign Minister?)? “,Masum Billah,bdnews24.com,August 05,2022. For more read at https://bangla.bdnews24.com/bangladesh/30z6a5umsb
2. Bangladesh Bank