The bilateral rapport entered another epoch-making year in 2024 with certain remarkable accomplishments in various domains. With both nations looking forward to the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations in 2025, the bilateral relations achieved significant progress in trade and investment, a framework for infrastructure and development, as well as humanitarian actions. In October 2024, Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen provided a detailed overview of China’s accomplishments and its relationship with Bangladesh on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China’s establishment, focusing on some of the important developments in China-Bangladesh cooperation. During a seminar in mid-October on ‘Future Perspectives of Bangladesh-China Relations’ at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Dhaka, Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain highlighted Bangladesh’s significant political changes, prompting a re-evaluation of Bangladesh-China relations in a post-Hasina context.
In addition, Hossain stated that a variety of factors, including Bangladesh’s political stability and shifting regional and global dynamics, are likely to have an impact on future bilateral relations. He identified a number of emerging fields for potential collaboration, including green energy, tourism, satellite technology, and climate change. Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen expressed appreciation for the recent significant political transformations in Bangladesh and said China was behind the interim government in its state reforms, maintaining law and order, promoting economic development, and improving people’s livelihoods. China supports Bangladesh’s position as a partner country of the BRICS mechanism and a dialogue partner with ASEAN, the ambassador said. He also agreed to help repatriate Rohingyas and to promote cooperation in multilateral arenas. Yao Wen also assured China of its commitment to the improvement of relations, whether the country opts for a political transformation or has changed political leadership.
The fall of the Hasina regime represented a turning point in Bangladesh’s political history and a new era in Bangladesh–China relations. The Chinese immediately responded to the political transition, being pragmatic. Ambassador Yao Wen and other Chinese officials welcomed the Yunus government. Beijing recognized the interim administration and expressed confidence in Yunus’s leadership, emphasizing continuity in bilateral cooperation. At a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen on August 25, Yunus urged China to relocate solar panel manufacturing plants to Bangladesh by noting that advancing the green economy and diversifying Bangladesh’s industrial base creates common ground for mutual benefit.
The Economic Trends
Bangladesh and China’s economic engagement continued to expand, propelled by their shared aspiration to deepen trade and investment. When Bangladesh handed it over to the Yunus interim government, China renewed its commitment to aiding Bangladesh’s economic recovery and long-term growth. Chinese enterprises invested over $85 million in Bangladesh during the year, a figure that is particularly significant given the political uncertainties of the transition period.
China’s 100% zero-tariff treatment of all items, with effect from December 1, 2024, is a landmark in rewriting trade relations from Bangladesh’s perspective. In developing its focus, this initiative concentrated on the Bangladeshi strategic exports of cereals, jute products, and mangoes to address trade imbalances and became a lifeline for the export-driven economy of Bangladesh, which needed a $20 billion export revenue shortfall in the past two fiscal years. This too aligns with China’s broader Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims at forging fair economic partnerships with aspiring countries.
Nonetheless, Bangladesh’s broader economic outlook was not conducive to fully exploiting the trade incentives available. However, Bangladesh’s infrastructural development by the Chinese persisted in advancing under the BRI umbrella. As of the end of 2024, China had financed the realization of 31 power and energy projects, 21 bridges, and several highways and railways. They also improved connectivity and made employment for thousands of people, showing how funding from China is improving Bangladeshi employment.
Education and Cultural Exchanges
Throughout 2024, education and cultural exchange remained vital in Bangladesh-China relations, strengthening people-to-people connections. It has been observed that the number of Bangladeshi students pursuing higher education in China exceeds 20,000, and there is growing interest in China’s academic programs. At the same time, two Confucius Institutes and one Confucius Classroom in Bangladesh educated nearly 3,000 students about Chinese language and culture. It also marked cultural diplomacy’s importance in deepening bilateral ties, as the same was announced as the ‘China-Bangladesh Year of People-to-People Exchanges,’ with the statement going forward in 2025. Their planned activities cover a wide spectrum of sectors, including academic interactions, tourism, sports, public health, and media collaborations. Their purpose was to generate mutual understanding and a further connection between the peoples of both nations.
Bilateral Programs and Humanitarian Collaboration
Also, disaster and their management have been identified as one of the key areas of collaboration with China, due to Bangladesh’s vulnerability to natural disasters. China sent flood rescue equipment worth 400,000 dollars and a National Emergency Medical Team in 2024 to help victims of political unrest and natural calamities. Here, China showed that it would be concerned with Bangladesh’s urgent calls at a time of great unrest. This was followed by the end of a two-year China-UNDP South-South Cooperation project in December 2024, another example of what international partnerships can achieve. Implemented in China’s 32 districts, 1,425 mostly women were empowered through the project, supported by China’s Ministry of Commerce (MoFCOM) and implemented in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). These included entrepreneurship training, technology transfer, or provision of automated sewing machines. In addition to improving the livelihoods of vulnerable populations, this initiative also highlighted the effectiveness of these triangular cooperation frameworks.
In 2024, both Bangladesh and China agreed to put environmentally sustainable climate change on their shared priority list. Along with other nations most affected by climate change, Bangladesh received China’s technical and financial support to manage the impacts of rising sea levels, cyclones, and floods. The timely nature of these initiatives was in line with Bangladesh’s plan for sustainable urbanization and Bangladesh’s general efforts to attain the UN sustainable goals.
Avenues for Further Collaboration
The Bangladesh-China relationship has extended well beyond the traditional areas of engagement. In 2024, the renewable energy sector proved to be an important area in Bangladesh and China could cooperate. Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, made a direct appeal to China to move some of its solar panel manufacturing facilities to Bangladesh. The aim of this proposal was to make Bangladesh a major player in the global renewable energy market with its green transition. Besides, Bangladesh, with its maritime domain in a strategic location along the Bay of Bengal, could be seen as an asset for economic growth. China served as the key partner that provided expertise and investment to Bangladesh to investigate the exploitable amounts of fisheries, aquaculture, and marine biotechnology. China was interested in Bangladesh’s Blue Economy with a view to strengthening its maritime infrastructure. China was a backer of the BRI, investing in developing seaports and shipping networks that boosted trade and helped boost Bangladesh’s capacity to manage its maritime resources.
Moreover, digital transformation for Bangladesh and China has also been focused on in the year 2024. One of them was digital empowerment, and it could be a game changer for Bangladesh’s economy, Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen said. With China already having expertise in digital technology and Bangladesh wanting to be a regional technology hub, the former fits the bill perfectly. Some main collaborative initiatives concentrated on technology transfers to upgrade Bangladesh’s ICT infrastructure and strengthen its ability to govern digitally.
However, China has expressed significant concern over the high-level courtesies extended to Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government, during his UN General Assembly visit (September 24-27) and the US delegation’s pledge of $200 million in aid during their September 14-15 visit to Bangladesh. The Chinese strategic community perceives Bangladesh’s political transformation as both a reflection of domestic political struggles and broader geopolitical shifts. However, China has been actively engaging with Bangladesh’s interim government through various channels. Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen has been conducting surveys of Chinese-funded enterprises in Bangladesh to prepare for potential uncertainties. Also, recently, Chief Advisor has been invited to visit China in March. Moreover, Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain relished a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing and discussed diverse issues and ways to strengthen Dhaka’s economic collaboration with Beijing.
Future Trajectory and Prospects for Bangladesh-China Relations
Bangladesh and China are at a turning point in their relationship as they prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic ties in 2025, which will be characterized by accomplishments, difficulties, and brand-new dynamics. In years to come, economic cooperation will remain a solid cornerstone in the bilateral relations of Bangladesh and China, as both have vested interests in trade, export, and diversification in industry. A big move came when Bangladesh was given zero tariff treatment for all taxable goods from Bangladesh with effect from December 2024 to address the trade imbalance and to help the export industry of Bangladesh.
China’s potential move forward of solar panel manufacturing plants to Bangladesh, proposed by Dr. Yunus, could change the economic interaction between China and Bangladesh. This could be a major step forward for Bangladesh’s green transition and also a source of high-value employment opportunities and positioning Bangladesh as a regional hub of renewable energy production. Moreover, China’s ongoing infrastructure investments through the BRI will also facilitate Bangladesh’s infrastructure development. The scope of Bangladesh–China cooperation in the strategic and technological areas will also influence the future of their relations.
While the partnership of Bangladesh and China is likely to be successful, Bangladesh’s internal political and economic stability will be central to the success or failure of the partnership. Meanwhile, substantial bilateral cooperation will depend in part upon the success of the interim government’s efforts to stabilize the economy and put in place a climate in which the electoral process can be conducted freely and fairly in 2025. Regionally, with regard to the Rohingya crisis, although China has mediated in trilateral dialogues with Myanmar, real progress will only be achieved through greater commitment from everyone.
– Kawsar Uddin Mahmud is a Research Intern at the KRF Center for Bangladesh and Global Affairs (CBGA).
