China’s Thilafushi-Mongla link

Chinese state-linked firms are expanding their role in major port projects in the Maldives and Bangladesh. Captain Sarabjeet S Parmar writes that the Thilafushi and Mongla deals could have wider implications for India’s maritime influence and strategic space.

In early September 2026, the Maldives confirmed that the first phase of development at Thilafushi, the reclaimed island west of Male slated to become the nation’s principal commercial port, had been awarded to the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).  Thilafushi is meant to relieve congestion at Male and consolidate the cargo-handling capacity of Maldives. On the surface, this looks like an ordinary infrastructure tender, However, the choice of contractor, Maldives reneging on its commitment to jointly develop the Thilafushi Port with India, and the timing, deserve closer scrutiny. Specifically, due to CHEC’s record and because of a strikingly similar pattern now playing out 2,000 kilometres away at Bangladesh’s Mongla Port.

A Contractor with a Paper Trail

 CHEC is not a neutral engineering firm bidding on its technical merits alone. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC). CCCC is a state-owned conglomerate that is among the largest infrastructure builders in the world, and also one of the most sanctioned. In 2009 the World Bank debarred CCCC’s predecessor, the China Road and Bridge Corporation, over collusive and fraudulent bidding on a Philippines highway project. The ban was later extended to CCCC and, by extension, CHEC, running through 2017 and effectively barring the group from any Bank-financed roads-and-bridges contracts worldwide during that window. CHEC has consistently argued that the debarment........

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