Main issues of contention:
The border issue:
Both countries share the longest disputed frontier in the world (more than 2100 miles), which stretches from Northern Kashmir, to the Northeastern Province of Arunachal Pradesh. In 1962, rising tensions on both sides of the border led to a lightning Chinese assault, which resulted in a humiliating defeat for India, and the Chinese occupation of 16,500 square miles of territory previously owned by its transhimalayan neighbour. India also accuses Pakistan of having illegally ceded a slice of disputed Kashmiri territory, in Aksai Chin, to the PRC in 1963. China, for its part, after having more or less relinquished its claim over Sikkim, periodically declares that the entirety of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to the historical 'Greater Tibet', and therefore falls under its jurisdiction.
China's 'all-weather' friendship with Pakistan:
China has been Pakistan's staunchest ally over the years, bolstering its conventional military capabilites, as well as actively assisting it in the establishment of its nuclear weapons programme from the late 80s onwards, building all three of Pakistan's first three nuclear power plants and providing it with ready to launch M-9, M-11 and Dong Feng 21 ballistic missiles.
India's growing proximity to the US:
During the Cold War, New Delhi's relations with Washington were frequently marked by a fair degree of acrimony, largely due to the evolving strategic environment. To summarise at the risk of simplifying an incredibly complex period of diplomatic history, the United States viewed India as little more than the Soviet Union's regional surrogate, and New Delhi strongly disapproved of Washington's proximity to its CENTO ally, Pakistan, and of its growing ties with the PRC after Kissinger's furtive visit to Beijing in 1971.
Times have changed, however, since the end of the Cold War, and India’s emergence as major regional power has given it a lot more strategic significance than before. India’s blue-water navy, nuclear capabilities, powerful armed forces, high rate of economic growth and huge economic potential are all factors that make India loom a lot larger on America’s radar screen. India is also a vibrant and multiethnic parliamentary democracy and, as such, is far more attractive to the current American administration than other forms of authoritarian regimes in Asia. Containing China is just one aspect of the budding strategic partnership in-between the world’s largest and oldest democracy. Indeed, the US views India as a vital partner in the upholding of maritime security in vitally important sea lanes, and as an ally in the war on terror with a sizeable degree of experience in counterterrorism and often convergent threat perceptions, both being the target of Islamist terrorist cells.
The 'String of Pearls':
Pentagon analysts have famously dubbed China’s ‘string of pearls strategy’, its plan to acquire several strategically placed ports of call, naval bases and listening posts in friendly countries in order to protect the billions of dollars worth of trade that pass through strategically salient sea lanes such as the Strait of Hormuz or the Malacca Straits. For the Chinese military, who live in fear that in the event of a major conflict with the US, a naval blockade would suffice to cut off nearly all of China’s energy supplies overnight; the Chinese Navy’s deployment in areas such as the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea is a question of future survival and as such, entirely legitimate in nature. To the Indian strategic community, however, the 'string of pearls' is a 'constricting noose', threatening to contain and encircle India in its own backyard. I will bring this all up again, and in far greater detail when I do some blog entries on the Navy sometime later on in the month.
Signs of normalisation:
Surging trade:
Bilateral trade has been surging forward at a breakneck speed over the past few years, attaining 29 billion USD in the first six few months of 2008, which represents an increase of more than 69% over the figures at the same period last year. China has now overtaken the US to become India's number one trading partner.
Mutual Concessions:
India frequently reiterates China's sovereignty over Tibet, which is another extremely sensitive issue in Sino-Indian relations, as India harbours the Tibetan government in exile at Dharamsala; and China, for its part, has tacitly recognized India's claims over Sikkim. China has also attempted to appear more neutral in its official declarations during Indo-Pakistani conflicts, (such as during the Kargil War in 1999), even though behind the scenes it continues to bolster Pakistan's military apparatus.
The multiplication of bilateral visits:
A sustained level of high-ranking bilateral visits has ensured a certain new 'comfort level' in Sino-Indian dealings. At each meeting, a plethora of MOUs( Memorandums of Understanding), CBMs (Confidence Building Measures) and other agreeements are signed, on issues as varied as the sharing of hydrological data to the mutual reduction of troops along certain areas of the LAC (the line of actual control, i.e, the informal border).
This , of course, is an extremely succint summary of the state of both countries' relations, if anyone's interested in more detail, just send me an e-mail and I'll send you more info.
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