China in South Asia: A Strategy of ‘Strings of Pearls’?

China’s growing engagement in various sectors in South Asia poses challenges to India’s regional dominant position. China has started billions of dollars investment for infrastructure development, especially in those states who are part of its Belt and Road initiatives (BRI). Indian scholars consider Beijing’s Indian Ocean centric investment including sea port expansion as a policy of controlling India by creating ‘string of pearls,’ those small countries as a vital ‘pearl’ in this ‘string’. On the contrary, China claims that it is not anything concerning security in South Asia; rather, she looks for economic gain as well as a win-win situation for all. Except for India, all countries of this region have already welcomed their participation in the BRI. In order to illustrate the opposite perceptions of India and China, the paper aims to explore either China’s investment in the South Asian region is for its strategic gain or more economic expansions. I argue that China’s growing influence in South Asia should not be considered as a strategy of ‘encirclement’ against India. Nevertheless, the article concludes here if New Delhi and Beijing is looking forward to making a success of BRI, it certainly will bring crucial geopolitical and economic gain.