In South Asia, Chinese infrastructure brings debt and antagonism
Indian hawks see unserviceable Chinese loans as a ploy to win control of strategic assets
AT THE southern end of Laamu atoll in the Maldives, the palm-covered island of Gaadhoo guards the One and a Half Degree Channel, the passage for a good portion of the shipping from Africa to Asia. In 2015 Abdulla Yameen, the president, ordered Gaadhoo’s several hundred villagers to move to the atoll’s main island, Fonadhoo. Today Gaadhoo’s jetty has crumpled into the sea, and copies of the imam’s last sermons flutter about the floor of the abandoned mosque.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Monsoon squalls”
Asia March 10th 2018
- How Malaysia’s next election will be rigged
- Press freedom is waning in Myanmar
- North Korea says it is ready to talk to America
- A politician’s downfall shows the strength of #MeToo in South Korea
- Anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka signal a new social fissure
- A state election stirs a row about renewable energy in Australia
- In South Asia, Chinese infrastructure brings debt and antagonism
From the March 10th 2018 edition
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