The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India

by Vijay Gokhale

If China can persuade India in the future to permit Chinese merchandise to transit Sikkim, it will be a ‘golden goose’. It will allow China to transport goods in a secure and commercially profitably way overland through Tibet to the Indian heartland, where half a billion Indians live, thus giving it access to a major global market that is not dependent on transit through any other country. It will, equally importantly, become the shortest route from mainland China to the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. The port of Kolkata is just 725 kilometres away from the Tibet frontier in Sikkim. In contrast, the China–Pakistan corridor is over 1500 kilometres and the China–Myanmar corridor is over 1100 kilometres, and both cross inhospitable terrain and politically unstable territories. The transit through Sikkim is, therefore, the most viable route for China to the Indian Ocean, and Sikkim becomes a good bet for China to overcome their Malacca Dilemma.