ISAS Working Papers

In a strategy which harkens back to the building of their empire by the British East India Company, the Chinese are building dual-use ports in the Indo-Pacific. These ports, which link up with Chinese controlled special economic zones or directly with China through pipelines and economic corridors, have been financed through loans and are often financially unviable, leading the debt-entrapped countries to make significant concessions on sovereignty. Yet, while China continues to build its overseas empire, regional and global powers have failed to come up with any strategy to counter this expansion of China.