This book is a collection of papers presented at the National Symposium on “India-China Relations: Recent Developments”, organized by UGC Centre for Indian Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad, in December 2015. The book deals with China’s growing geostrategic presence in the Indian Ocean and the infrastructural and development initiatives by China which caused ripples in the Economic, Strategic and Political spheres not only in the neighbouring countries but also around the world as well. The emergence of new institutions for development and cooperation and its impact on India-China relations is a cause of concern, for the two countries are likely to be major players in the region from a long-term point of view.

Indian Ocean, third largest Ocean in the world surpasses the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Being world’s most populated Region, one-third of the world’s bulk cargo and two-thirds of world’s oil ship tankers passes through the Indian Ocean. China’s interests in the Indian Ocean Region can be traced and backed by early 60’s. Ever since Beijing has been increasingly deepening its presence in the Indian Ocean Region for a variety of reasons, such as, oil, trade and security etc. Over 30 per cent of China’s seaborne trade worth about $ 300 billion transits across Indian Ocean Region. Sharing a quarter of the world’s population, China facing ever increasing demand for energy. China has little choice but to look beyond its borders for its energy requirements. Around 77 percent of its oil imports are sourced from West Asia and Africa and these are transporting through the Indian Ocean via Malacca Strait. Thus, China’s dependency on Indian Ocean Region continues to grow for energy imports from gulf and to import resources from Africa and trade with Europe. With China steadily spreading its footprints in the IOR with increasing military presence and with rapidly growing its navy being equipped with warships, destroyers and nuclear submarines through a strategy, called ‘String of Pearls’ which can encircle India in its convenient time in the near future. So, China has been emerging as biggest threat for India by analyzing its actions in the Indian Ocean Region and along with India-China border from Easter Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh as stand-off continues since June 2020.

Rising as a global power and regarding the existing world order unjust and unreasonable enough to meet the interests of both itself and other emerging powers, China has demanded reform to global governance, and taken new initiatives using its new quotient of wealth and influence to draw countries into its orbit. This comprehensive volume focuses on the two most important of these initiatives: the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013 to strengthen China’s connectivity with a large part of the world through infrastructure and economic development; and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), created in 2015, which represented China’s effort in the reconstruction of the international development rules. This book explores how these two initiatives are central to China’s emerging global strategy. The authors examine China’s geopolitical and geo-economic motivations and domestic political dynamics in launching these two initiatives. They also investigate the responses from the major foreign partners involved in both initiatives. This book will be of great interest to students, academics and researchers of China’s emerging global strategy. It comprises articles originally published in the Journal of Contemporary China.

As two Asian giants and rising power, the interactions between India and China have global significance. This book analyses the multifaceted and multi-layered character of Sino-Indian relations since the beginning of the 21st century in a period marked by cooperation and competition. Positioned in a social constructivist framework that emphasizes mutual perceptions and socialization, the book draws analytical leverage from two core concepts – national identity and national interest – to form the basis of the research inquiry. The author argues that the dynamics of national identity and national interest play an important role in determining their relations and shows how and why in the current international structure, including a context of accelerated globalization, their national identities as rising power and emerging power coupled with national interest of economic development have defined and directed their international positions and foreign policy-making. A unique approach to analysing Sino-Indian relations, this book is of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Politics and International Relations.

Sino-American nuclear relations are critical given ongoing modernization efforts on both sides and an increasingly complex regional and global nuclear environment. This volume pairs Chinese and American authors together to offer national perspectives on contemporary nuclear issues.

China is the world’s second largest economy and a key player in world politics. This book looks at China’s foreign policy from a macro perspective. It analyses China’s peripheral and regional policy as well as its relations with other major powers – India and Russia. It offers insight into the historical security concerns of China and the linkages of internal domestic issues with external diplomacy which reshape its relations with neighbouring countries. The volume also examines President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy orientations and aspirations for future. In face of growing global concern on China’s hegemonic ambitions in the region, the book gauges the tensions between China and Japan in the South China Sea as well as the apprehensions of several smaller Asian countries that may perceive China’s strategic and geo-economic advantages and military strength as a threat. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of China studies, politics, foreign policy, international relations, military and strategic studies, defence and security studies, area studies, and political studies.

This book explains why China has resorted to the use of large-scale military force in foreign affairs. How will China use its growing military might in coming crisis and existing conflicts? This book contributes to the current debate on the future of the Asia-Pacific region by examining why China has resorted to using military force in the past. Utilizing fresh theoretical insights on the causes of interstate war and employing a sophisticated methodological framework, the book provides detailed analyses of China’s intervention in the Korean War, the Sino-Indian War, China’s border clashes with the Soviet Union and the Sino-Vietnamese War. It argues that China did not employ military force in these wars for the sake of national security or because of material issues under contestation, as frequently claimed. Rather, the book’s findings strongly suggest that considerations about China’s international status and relative standing are the principal reasons for China’s decision to engage in military force in these instances. When reflecting the study’s central insight back onto China’s contemporary territorial conflicts and problematic bilateral relationships, it is argued that the People’s Republic is still a status-seeking and thus highly status-sensitive actor. As a result, China’s status ambitions should be very carefully observed and well taken into account when interacting with the PRC. This book will be of much interest to students of Chinese foreign policy, Asian politics, military and strategic studies and IR in general.

JAIR Journal of International Relations (JAIR J. Int. Relat.) is a biennial, peer-reviewed, refereed journal of International Relations published by The Jadavpur Association of International Relations with the financial assistance from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi.

Ravi Dutt Bajpai examines some of the pivotal episodes in the modern history of China and India to argue that their behaviours reflect the self-identity of a civilization-state. The book starts from the progression of China and India into putatively modern polities during the colonial period, as the two indigenous societies imagined their national identities and nationalist aspirations primarily by contrasting their civilizational attributes with the Western colonial occupiers. As newly independent nation-states, both believed that their international status flowed from their civilizational glories. Therefore, despite their material and institutional fragility, China and India decided to pursue complete autonomy to manage their domestic and foreign affairs. Indian Prime Minister Nehru's policy of non-alignment, envisioning an alternate world order beyond the great power competition, was inspired by Indian civilizational ethos. The book also examines the Sino-Indian war of 1962 from a civilization-state perspective and argues that Tibet represented a conflict of civilizational influence. Chapters also explore some of the more recent developments, such as the Indian nuclear test of 1998, China's ambitious Belt and Road (BRI) infrastructure project aimed at reviving the ancient Silk Road, and India's campaign to regain its civilizational status of Vishwa Guru, as the continued manifestations of the two civilization-states endeavouring to regain their past glories in the contemporary world.