India and China in Asia: Between Equilibrium and Equations, 1st Edition

About the Book

This book analyses the structure of the India–China relationship and the two prominent powers’ positions with and against each other, bilaterally and globally, in a complex Asian environment and beyond. India and China’s perceptions of one another are evaluated to reveal how the order of Asia is influenced by engaging in different power equations that affect equilibrium and disequilibrium.

Contributors address three critical perspectives of India and China in Asia which are increasingly shaping the future of Asia and impacting the Indo-Pacific power balance. First, they examine the mutual perceptions of India and China as an integral part of Asia’s evolving politics and the impact of this on the emerging Asian order and disorder. Second, they assess how classical and contemporary characteristics of the India–China boundary and beyond-border disputes or conflicts are shaping Asia’s political trajectory and leaving an impact on the Indo-Pacific region. Additionally, contributors observe the prevailing power equations in which India and China are currently engaged to reveal that they are not only geographically limited to the Asian region. Instead, having a strong global or intercontinental character attached to it, the India–China relationship involves extra-territorial powers and extra-territorial regions.

This book will be of interest to academics, students and policymakers working on Asian studies, international relations, area studies, emerging powers studies, strategic studies, security studies and conflict studies.

About the Editor

Jagannath P. Panda is a Research Fellow and Centre Coordinator for East Asia at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi, India. An expert on China, Indo-Pacific security and East Asian affairs, he is the series editor for Routledge Studies on Think Asia.

Contents

Introduction: Equations and Equilibrium in Asia – A Primer, Jagannath P. Panda

Part I: Bilateral Perspectives
1. Chinese Perspectives on India’s Rise, J. Mohan Malik
2. Asian Equilibrium: India’s Overture to China, Jagannath P. Panda
3. China’s Major-country Diplomacy, Asia Policy and Sino-Indian Relations: Chinese Officials’ Narrative Explained, Xu Jian

Part II: Boundary and Beyond Borders
4. Calculus of a Chinese Decision for Local War with India, John W. Garver
5. India–China Boundary Dispute: A Taiwanese Perspective, Tien-Sze Fang
6. The Tibet Factor in China–India Territorial Dispute: Issue-Linkage, Leverage and Coercion, Ivan Lidarev
7. India, China and the South China Sea: Politics beyond the Territorial Disputes, Anita Inder Singh

Part III: Barriers of Equations
8. India and China through the Lens of US Geostrategy, Namrata Goswami
9. How Will the Belt and Road Initiative Shape the Rise of Asia? A Chinese Outlook, Jiang Zhida
10. Economic Dreams and Geopolitical Realities: How will the India–China–Russia Dynamic Unfold in Greater Central Asia?, Niklas Swarnstrom & Julian Tucker
11. Footholds and Footprints: China’s Inroads in Emerging Europe and their Outcomes, Sarmiza Pencea