Chinese tourists, diplomats make a splash in the Maldives

The travellers pouring off flight LV199 from Shanghai into the international airport of the Maldives, many dressed in designer labels, are an unmissable sign of China's interest in the far-flung archipelago.
Their arrival -- Chinese visitors are now the biggest group of tourists to the Indian Ocean islands -- has been accompanied by greater diplomatic engagement in the Maldives by Beijing, which is investing widely around South Asia.
Recently married Chen Hui and Fang Ye, 20-something business executives from near Shanghai, are returning for their second trip and heading to a resort by speed boat where over-the-water bungalows start at $500 a night.

"Most of our friends come here on their honeymoon," Fang told AFP, who said they were looking forward to doing some fishing and posing for photos on the sun-kissed white sands that draw nearly a million visitors a year.
The Maldives has been promoted as a destination in the Chinese media, she said, with the Islamic republic benefiting from its status as an "approved destination" by the Communist Party government.
Chinese now comprise nearly a quarter of all tourists annually, triggering a recruitment race for Mandarin-speaking hosts, waiters and diving instructors at five-star hotels.

Across the water from the airport island lies the cramped capital Male, where Chinese aid paid for the foreign ministry, a waterfront building built in the shape of sails that evoke the nation's sea-faring character.

In the Sultan Park neighbourhood stands the two-storey national museum, another gift from China that opened in 2010. It hit the headlines two years later when Islamist rioters broke in and smashed invaluable Buddhist artefacts.
Around the same time, Beijing opened an embassy, giving it a permanent diplomatic presence -- and better access to the frequent Chinese swimming casualties who underestimate the dangers of the country's turquoise waters.
"I think we will do our best to develop our friendship and cooperate in the economic field," Chinese ambassador in Male, Yu Hongyao, told AFP in an interview when asked about Beijing's vision for relations.

"Gradually we will give aid to Maldives," he added.
He said that bilateral trade volumes remain "very small" but that talks were on for future joint projects, including possible road construction and education schemes.
China's interest in the Maldives fits a pattern of investments around the Indian Ocean, referred to by some analysts as a "string of pearls" strategy to contain India's rise.