Social And Cultural Relations Between Bangladesh And China (1991-2015)

Bangladesh and China have enjoyed a well shaped relationship rooted deep in history. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971,China and Bangladesh maintained a remarkable diplomatic relations as a near neighboring country. Since the inception of this relationship in 1975, both the countries have attempted to make it bilaterally positive and fruitful. Presidents and Prime Ministers of both countries paid friendly visit each other’s country to keep better relationship. Several political and diplomatic visits, contacts and friendly exchanges took place between administrative agencies,parliamentary bodies, political leaders, cultural troops, journals, business groups and NGO’s between the two countries during the time span. For the sake of cooperative relationship, both countries signed some bilateral treaties and Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) in the field of socio-economic and cultural affairs. Within the fold of this good interrelation many bilateral Socio-Cultural dealings have been carried out during the time span of the research. With the government initiatives many other social and cultural exchanges like exchange of languages and academic facilities, scholarship and exchanges of cultural trip as well as sports and friendship visit were made between the two parts. With the fold of the diplomatic interrelations some other exchanges like people to people connections (made by via e.g.business tour, tourism and friendship visits), affiliations of different mass media and religious and philosophical exchanges also have been furnished during the research period and still smoothly running on between the two countries.During the organization of the dissertation by using Cultural Diplomacy Theory and Soft Power Theory the researcher tried to critically examined the real scenario of Bangladesh-China social and cultural relationship and its impact on the both countries conducting quantitative research methods. On the other hand accomplishing the dissertation some barriers or challenges hindered the social and cultural relationship between Bangladesh and China has been identified and several policy recommendations to overcome the indicated challenges have been furnished. The thesis also furnishes the answer why China as a Great power need to contributes in the field of social and cultural arena of Bangladesh, and what would be the role of Bangladesh as a good friend to China in the contemporary international politics.