A Bangladaise delegation of 22 members of political leaders, civil society activists, academics and journalists began a 10 -day visit to China.
They will have interviews with civil servants of the Chinese government and senior members of the Communist Party in power, a confirmed delegation with the BBC.
Analysts say that China makes openings while diplomatic tensions have increased between Bangladesh and India on a series of questions.
This includes the Bangladais ousted Banglada Sheikh Hasina living in exile in India. Dhaka asked his extradition but Delhi refused.
Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior official of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) who heads the delegation to Beijing, told the BBC: “It is essentially a goodwill visit, initiated by Beijing.”
“It’s unique because China this time invited a team representing various groups in Bangladesh.”
Many members of the delegation come from the BNP and its allies. The BNP, led by former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, is one of the main parts of Bangladesh, in addition to the Awami League led by Hasina.
The delegation also includes several representatives of the student movement who began the mass uprising against Hasina who finally ousted the Prime Minister in August of last year.
An interim government, led by the Nobel Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus is currently in charge.
He urged India to repatriate Hasina to face accusations of crimes against humanity and money laundering, among other allegations. The UN says that the repression of the Hasina government against the demonstrators during the uprising killed around 1,400 people.
Until now, India has shown no Hasina extradiation sign, which denies the accusations.
Delhi and Dhaka had maintained close ties during the 15th anniversary rule of Mrs. Hasina, which was widely seen by its detractors as pro-India. While maintaining close links with Delhi, she balanced it with her relationship with Beijing.
After the fall of Hasina, Beijing intensified its interaction with the leaders, activists and delegations of Bangladesh, including Islamist parties.
This week’s visit follows a meeting between the foreign policy advisor to the foreign government of Bangladesh Touhid Hossain and the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi in Beijing in January.
He also marked the second time that BNP officials have visited China in recent months, after Beijing organized a BNP delegation at the end of last year.
With the political vacuum and the absence of the influence of India, according to analysts, Beijing tries to increase its foot in Bangladesh, a country of around 170 million people.
China is the largest trading partner in Bangladesh with bilateral trade amounting to around 24 billion dollars (19 billion pounds sterling) – the vast majority of Chinese exports to the South Asian country.
The Bangladesian army also depends strongly on Chinese equipment and ammunition with more than 70% of supplies from China.
Compared to the Beijing openings, India has had very limited interactions with the interim government and other Bangladian political leaders in the past six months.
The BNP organized a demonstration in December alleging India’s interference in internal Bangladesh issues by hosting Hasina. Some interim government advisers have also criticized Delhi on the same question.
This criticism sparked a strong reaction from Delhi.
The Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last week that it was in Bangladesh to decide “of the type of relationship they wanted with us”.
He described the criticism of India by Bangladian officials and politicians as “absolutely ridiculous”.
Some maintain that this increasingly tense rhetoric between Dacca and Delhi could push Bangladesh to China.
The latest events indicate that Bangladesh has joined its South Asian compatriots Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal as a target for Delhi and Beijing, while superpowers are jostling for influence.
“I do not believe that India should consider that the whole subcontinent is under the sphere of influence of Delhi. This attitude would make India suffer,” the Chinese analyst Zhou Bo told the BBC. , a principal researcher at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
