View of INDIA CHINA RELATIONS: PASSING THROUGH AN UNEASY APPROACH

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VOLUME: 08, Special Issue 04, (ICESD-2021), Paper id-IJIERM-VIII-IV, June 2021

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INDIA CHINA RELATIONS: PASSING THROUGH AN UNEASY APPROACH

Dr. Javid Ahmad Mir

(Assistant Professor at St. Paul Institute of Professional Studies, Indore M.P)

Abstract - China and India share a very old history and relationship. Throughout the first millennium, they were the centers of spiritual and religious activities. The two countries suffered from western colonialism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, political contacts between them were few. Culturally, it was mostly from India to China. India- China relations are passing through an uneasy approach in the Second decade of 21^st century.

Un-nerved by India‟s strategic proximity with the US and latter‟s assertive counter to Chinese power protection in South China, China appears to perceive India as a regional competitor and harmful to China‟s vital national interests. In this study an attempt has been made to question the major irritants among both the nations.

Keywords: Tibet Issue, Boundary Dispute, Trade Imbalance.

1 BACKGROUND

India and China the two superpowers of Asia are successors of old age great civilization and are also neighbors. India, China association although basically mutual in nature is compounded and even formed by exterior factors of provincial and global situations. It has been a main reason in India‟s foreign policy .Meanwhile India was anxious in her post partition difficulties and China was so intensely complicated in the civil war that as Werner levy wrote “Direct relations among the two nations separately from contents and intercontinental bodies were mostly limited to the rules and regulations and the schedule of the customary global contact”.

But quickly the two nations were to grow near and friendly affairs. This pristine revival of age old friend ship among the two main nations of Asia .The entrance of western imperialism in Asia had distressed the customary friend ship. In population, human resources and possible, India and China the giants of Asia, farceur pass any other country of Asia. They transmit the weight of pleased past spreading into mythology and seem to be both ageless and timeless”.

Cultural interactions between the two nations had taken place even more the two thousand years back. China under the profound effect of Buddhism motivate the devotes to visit India and see the residences of Buddhism throughout the ancient time likewise many Indian Buddhist monks paid visit to china. According to Indian proceedings, King Ashoka sent a number of Buddhist monks to China in third century Bc. Mahayana Buddhism definitely entrenched into Chinese society along with Confucianism and Taoism of China .Some Chinese scholars and Buddhist ,knowledgeable of Sanskrit language ,together Buddhist scriptures and supported to China .Buddha dharma, Apalava Prince from southern India turned Buddhist monk, was credited with presenting the Chan (Dhan) Buddhism and Indian martial arts into China in 5^TH century A.D. Bodhidharma was demanded to be the predecessor of shoaling martial arts.

Armed defeat of the Kuomintang Government at the hands of the communists led to the initiating of the Peoples Republic of China on 1^st October 1949. India was the Second Non- Communist Government, the first being Burma to identify the Peking Government, According to Prime Minister Nehru: “It was not a question of favorable or disapproving. It was a question of knowing a major event in history.”India further decided to start diplomatic dealings with Communist China on the basis of the ideologies of “Equality, Mutual Interests and Common Respect for Sovereign and Defensive Rights”.

2 TIBET ISSUE AND 1962 WAR

The new Chinese rule in Tibet made Tibetans to revolt in 1959; China ruthlessly suppressed the movement and declared Tibet as an integral part of China. The head of Tibet Dalai Lama took shelter in India; Tibet lost whatever autonomy it enjoyed. India granted political shelter to Dalai Lama and his followers, India recognized Tibetan government in exile in India which is

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based in Dharmasala, Himachal Pradesh. This angered China and led to Chinese aggression in October 1962 to teach India a lesson. India suffered humiliating defeat in this war and the war came to end by a unilateral ceasefire by China. Srilanka made an attempt to work out a peaceful settlement between the two nations. It failed because China refused to agree on conditions stipulated in this peace proposal. In this war, China occupied 36000 sq.kms of Indian Territory in Aksai-Chin area of Ladakh. The war led to disruption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were restored in 1976.

2.1 Boundary Dispute

The McMohan Line demarcated the boundary between India and China for long time, but China refused to recognize McMohan Line in 1950 on the ground that it is a line, which was drawn arbitrarily by the imperial powers. It is a line between India and Bhutan, this line was drawn in 1914 at a Conference of representatives of British India, Tibet and China. The Secretary of state of India, Arthur Henry McMohan Line represented British India in the Conference and therefore it is known as McMohan Line. By disputing Mc Mohan Line, China first started to claim large parts of Indian Territory in North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) , now Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh by circulating maps in which these areas were shown as part of China. China followed policy of expansionist and constructed a 110 mile long road across Aksai-Chin area in 1956, in addition to 36000 sq miles of Indian Territory captured in 1962 war and now China claims 90000 sq.kms of Indian Territory in Arunachal Pradesh. Both countries have decided to set up Joint Working Group to discuss the boundary issue and find a political solution to the same.

2.2 Normalization of Relations and Emerging Irritants

The diplomatic relations between the countries resumed in 1976, the efforts for normalization have been gaining momentum from time to time though the areas of tensions have also been visible. Thus, the process of normalization of relations has not been smooth; the normalization process received a boost when Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made a successful five day visit to China in 1988. The two countries agreed to settle the border dispute through dialogue and set up high level border commission to deal with this matter and many high level visits were organized by the two countries. However the normalization process received various temporary setbacks from time to time as discussed below;

2.3 India’s Nuclear Test

The normalization process among both the countries received a setback after the nuclear explosions by India in May 1998. Chinese reaction was sharp and negative and it played a leading role in getting passed the resolutions condemning Indian nuclear tests in UN and other international forums. China viewed these tests as challenge to her nuclear hegemony in the region, however China seemed to adjust with the reality of rising India and maintained a neutral position during Kargil War of 1999 between India and Pakistan.

2.4 Stapled Visas

In 2009, China began the practice of issuing stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh, provoking a strong protest from India. It rejected this practice saying these acts by China amounted to questioning India‟s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In 2011, China stopped issuing such visas for people from Jammu and Kashmir. The issue first came to light in 2007, when Ganesh Koyu, a senior IAS officer from Arunachal Pradesh was denied a Chinese visa for a study programme tour to Beijing and Shanghai. China, back then, believed that residents of Arunachal Pradesh did not need travel documents to travel to their country, since it claimed a majority of the Indian state as its own. However, in the recent past, several sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh, including weightlifters and archers, have been issued stapled visas by the Chinese embassy, causing further annoyance to India.

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2.5 String of Pearls

One of India‟s growing concerns in the last decade or so is China‟s ever-expanding sphere of geopolitical influence in the Indian Ocean. Dubbed as “string of pearls” in wonk-speak, it involves the development of commercial ports in various countries as part of its new “Silk Route”. The route, which China claims as an important trade corridor, extends from its naval base in Hainan Island (South China Sea) to Bagamayo in Tanzania, Africa, with several of the ports encircling mainland India. These include Hambantota (Sri Lanka), Gwadar (Pakistan), Chittagong (Bangladesh) and Marao Atoll (Maldives). Also, besides India, China is the only other country to have a fully functional embassy in Male. Officially, India does not see these developments as “competition” between itself and China. China denies that these ports are to be used as naval bases to threaten its neighbour. The other areas where India and China are engaged in a few bouts of shadow boxing involve increased trade and development projects in Africa and Latin America. India‟s trade with Africa is expected to rise to a $100 billion in 2015, while China‟s annual trade with Africa is worth $200 billion. In Latin America and the Caribbean, India‟s trade rose to $42 billion in 2013, while China, according to China-Latin America Finance Database, committed $100 billion in the region from 2005 to 2013.

2.6 Water Dispute

While China is already involved in several water-sharing disputes with countries like Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam over the Mekong River, its plans to build several dams on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra (known as Tsangpo in China) hasn‟t gone down well with New Delhi. The Brahmaputra, which originates as Tsangpo in Tibet, is one of the major water resources in India‟s north-east, especially as a source for irrigation and industry. China has a unique, exclusivist policy when it comes to sharing natural resources. It follows a doctrine that believes in exclusive use of resources that originate from its soil. India, in the meanwhile, is looking to build 25 hydropower plants in Arunachal Pradesh before China completes its project. India is also concerned about “a decrease in the flow of the river water” and “the destruction of the Himalayan ecosystem.”

2.7 Trade Imbalance

Trade relations between India and China formally resumed in 1978. Six years later, the two countries signed the most favored nation (MFN) agreement. India‟s trade with China began rather modestly, as low as $2.92 billion in 2000. Eleven years later, it rose to a phenomenal all-time high of $73.9 billion. In 2012, decreasing Indian exports over the previous 12 months meant, it fell to $66.57 billion. While China is India‟s largest trade partner today, concerns about trade imbalance between the two countries remain, with the imbalance skewed in China‟s favour. During 2013-14, the trade deficit between the two countries was at $36.22 billion,

3 CONCLUSION

Relations amongst India and China, the most seasoned living human advancements of the world, had been warm, neighborly and helpful some time before their autonomy. India and China had built up more noteworthy linkages through social trades and exchange all through the history. Old exchange and religious journeys had been thriving through the antiquated silk course for a considerable length of time. The profound connections even kept amid the medieval period and numerous Buddhist priests made a trip to China, while numerous Chinese explorers went by India for more prominent religious experience. In spite of the fact that the provincial lack of care have underplayed the old connection and expanded contrasts between the two neighbors, the antiquated connections even fortified after the freedom of both the nations. There is no uncertainty in saying that the levels of engagement amongst India and China have expanded positively to a more prominent degree. India, in the meantime, requires embracing complex way to deal with manage the developing Vital difficulties being radiating from China. Regardless of the way that China has turned out to be progressively confident at

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the provincial level as well as at the worldwide level, India has not demonstrated any disappointment so far in most grounded terms. The outskirt debate with China won't be settled in not so distant future. In the ebb and flow conditions, clearly exchange has come to be seen as an inexorably essential driver of relations by the two sides; particularly in the light of waiting political question on various wide scopes of issues spreading over from the long running fringe debate to China's all climate association with Pakistan. The customary reports of invasions by Chinese troops and more forceful watching in debated ranges have unquestionably made strain on India-China relations.

The opportunity has already come and gone that the two India and China should begin stressing on settling the genuine fringe issues with the goal that the relationship gets a lift and which at last would fashion a more noteworthy and amicable participation. India additionally requires taking master dynamic measures in countering China over its outskirts, Another Logic with a blend of both authenticity and neo-authenticity would shape their perspective of each other. The neo-pragmatist viewpoint of global relations, where boost of interest‟s turns into the key factor would control India – China relations later on. The development of China as India's greatest exchanging accomplice in the present time flags that both the nations have been introducing another period of relationship generally guided by financial aspects and business factor, The consenting to of an Arrangement on "Political Parameters and Managing Standards for the Settlement of the Fringe Debate", by the two India and China has demonstrated that both the nations, India and China are pushing forward as far as coming to an accord on this significant aggravation. It has been likewise concurred that the two sides would keep up peace and serenity on the fringe. Be that as it may, at the same, it requires watchful appraisal particularly on the purpose and statements. China has additionally been following the principles of the 'Monroe Regulation'. The endeavor has dependably been to deny access to different powers in the area that it sees as solely inside its effective reach. Such Chinese activities have been harming the interests of different districts particularly to the nations in the East and South East Asia. A large number of China's activities in this piece of the world would require exceptionally cautious dealing with by India. It might be critical for India in the present setting to comprehend China's aims and key objectives. India will dependably advance valuable engagement with China and maintain a strategic distance from any head-to-head showdown. It would likewise be to China's greatest advantage in the event that it fashions more prominent and hearty organization with India in the twenty first century.

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