A boundary agreement is not a simple delineation of lines on a map or a demarcation on the ground. Nor is it a technical matter alone. It is a significant political act. In the negotiations to resolve the Sino-Indian boundary issue, Mr. Kalha brings out the clear linkages between boundary making, national strategic requirements, regional politics and the influence and role of the great powers.
Boundary issues have always occupied a central focus in the relations between India and China. Highlighting the role of history, policy, and diplomacy, this book traces the origins and development of the India–China boundary problem during the British Raj. A.G. Noorani shows how British efforts to secure a defined boundary in the western sector began immediately after the creation of Jammu & Kashmir in 1846. However, in the eastern sector, such an exercise began only sixty-five years later, when a Chinese threat was perceived. Examining the role of the bureaucracy and diplomatic negotiations, the author presents a nuanced analysis of the treaties and conventions, as well as internal debates between British officials on conflicting policies. Breaking new ground, this book evaluates the relevance of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, and explains how the diplomatic history in the last hundred years shaped the boundary problem between India and China. What was a problem aggravated into a dispute that erupted in 1959. The central thesis is that history had direct relevance to the shaping of a sound policy. Based on archival research and unpublished material, this volume uses twenty-two appendices and fourteen maps to present a unique perspective on a long- standing problem.
China’s territorial disputes have been a matter of debate since the 1950s. While China has amicably resolved boundary disputes with 12 out of 14 neighbouring countries, it is yet to resolve its boundary disputes with India and Bhutan as also its two martime disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea. Given that the prediction for the settlement of China’s remaining disputes is largely doubtful, this book investigates the reasons for differences in Chinese behaviour with India. China’s boundary dispute with India is a subject of deliberation and it remains to be seen whether China plans to devise its ‘boundary diplomacy’ with a country as huge and strong as India.
At the outset, this book must be viewed as a policy relevant document rather than an abstract historical research paper. The authors have revisited the seemingly intractable India-China border dispute from a contemporary conflict resolution perspective and thus are relatively detached from the historical baggage that has so often influenced other commentaries on this controversial subject. The great natural defensive line of northern India, the mighty Himalayas, separating Tibet from north-east India, is a barrier which, by tradition, was impenetrable. This defensive line is embodied by the 1914 Line, India s non-negotiable interest. Thus, from an Indian perspective, it can never be conceived that its frontiers with China are ever formalized on the Brahmaputra plains. Further, the 1914 alignment, aside from its strategic sanctity, also upholds the ethnic and linguistic affinities to peoples south of it, who are distinct from the homogenous Tibetan or Han people. Similarly, from China s perspective it too is in possession of its non-negotiable interest the Aksai Chin plateau. And therein lies the essence of an east-west swap. By retracing the historical record, the authors argue that such a swap is eminently feasible and historically justifiable. Moreover, realpolitik demands it. From the Indian perspective, however, it should be equally clear that a bipartisan national consensus is imperative for any breakthrough resolution to emerge. It remains to be seen, however, if political managers on both sides are able to muster the necessary will to resolve a dispute that has lasted for more than half-a-century. Contents: Introduction · Acknowledgments · The Legacy of the Great Game · India, Tibet and China · India Inherits the Frontiers :1947-1954 · The Debacle of 1962 · Road to Rapprochement: Diplomacy since the 1970s · The Way Forward: Mutual accommodation and accommodation of reality · Appendices · Bibliography · Index
Ananth Krishnan first moved to China in the summer of 2008. In the years that followed, he had a ringside view of the country's remarkable transformation. He reported from Beijing for a decade, for the India Today and The Hindu. This gave him a privileged opportunity that few Indians have had -- to travel the length and breadth of the country, beyond the glitzy skyscrapers of Shanghai and the grand avenues of Beijing that greet most tourists, to the heart of China's rise. This book is Krishnan's attempt at unpacking India's China challenge, which is four-fold: the political challenge of dealing with a one-party state that is looking to increasingly shape global institutions; the military challenge of managing an unresolved border; the economic challenge of both learning from China's remarkable and unique growth story and building a closer relationship; and the conceptual challenge of changing how we think about and engage with our most important neighbour. India's China Challenge tells the story of a complex political relationship, and how China -- and its leading opinion-makers -- view India. It looks at the economic dimensions and cultural connect, and the internal political and social transformations in China that continue to shape both the country's future and its relations with India.
As China emerges as an international economic and military power, the world waits to see how the nation will assert itself globally. Yet, as M. Taylor Fravel shows in Strong Borders, Secure Nation, concerns that China might be prone to violent conflict over territory are overstated. The first comprehensive study of China's territorial disputes, Strong Borders, Secure Nation contends that China over the past sixty years has been more likely to compromise in these conflicts with its Asian neighbors and less likely to use force than many scholars or analysts might expect. By developing theories of cooperation and escalation in territorial disputes, Fravel explains China's willingness to either compromise or use force. When faced with internal threats to regime security, especially ethnic rebellion, China has been willing to offer concessions in exchange for assistance that strengthens the state's control over its territory and people. By contrast, China has used force to halt or reverse decline in its bargaining power in disputes with its militarily most powerful neighbors or in disputes where it has controlled none of the land being contested. Drawing on a rich array of previously unexamined Chinese language sources, Strong Borders, Secure Nation offers a compelling account of China's foreign policy on one of the most volatile issues in international relations.
The Sino-Indian War of 1962 delivered a crushing defeat to India: not only did the country suffer a loss of lives and a heavy blow to its pride, the world began to see India as the provocateur of the war, with China ‘merely defending’ its territory. This perception that China was largely the innocent victim of Nehru’s hostile policies was put forth by journalist Neville Maxwell in his book India’s China War, which found readers in many opinion makers, including Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. For far too long, Maxwell’s narrative, which sees India as the aggressor and China as the victim, has held court. Nearly 50 years after Maxwell’s book, Bertil Lintner’s China’s India War puts the ‘border dispute’ into its rightful perspective. Lintner argues that China began planning the war as early as 1959 and proposes that it was merely a small move in the larger strategic game that China was playing to become a world player—one that it continues to play even today.
"On 1 October 1949, the People's Republic of China came into being and changed forever the course of Asian history. Power moved from the hands of the nationalist Kuomintang government to the Communist Party of China headed by Mao Tse Tung. All of a sudden, it was not only an assertive China that India had to deal with but also an increasingly complex situation in Tibet which was reeling under pressure from China. Clearly, newly independent India, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru at its helm, was navigating very choppy waters. Its relations with China progressively deteriorated, eventually leading to the Indo-China war in 1962. Today, more than six decades after the war, we are still plagued by border disputes with China that seem to routinely grab the headlines. It leads one to question what exactly went on during those initial years of the emergence of a new China"--Publisher's summary.
This is one of those rare books that puts an entirely new light on a chapter of history, and it must be read by anyone concerned with international affairs. Although cool and scholarly it unrolls like a fascinating thriller. It is an important work of revisionist history and a gruesome study of the way in which wars start, superbly documented (largely from official Indian sources but also from secret Indian papers) and beautifully sustained. By showing how India led the world up the garden path it demolishes and throws to the wind a pillar of the 'contain China' doctrine -- the belief that in 1962 India was the victim of unprovoked Chinese aggression. Maxwell's book is magnificent on every count, an historical achievement of the first rank.
