Sino-Indian Security Predicaments for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This article considers various security predicaments affecting relations between India and China. These Sino-Indian security predicaments include their territorial dispute, their nuclear arms race, their encirclement and alignment scenarios, their trade and energy issues, and their future prospects. International relations (IR) theory is deployed around these varied security predicaments, with power and perception particularly evident in IR realism, geopolitics, constructivism, and security dilemma dynamics. Balance-of-power theory is complemented by balance-of-threat considerations. India's hedging strategy towards China and China's own strategy of transition point to each country looking to their own respective rise for the mid century.

Issues in Sino-Indian Relations: Implications for Competition

“…In 1904 Anglo-Tibetan treaty was concluded between British and Tibetan governments resulting in Aksai Chin coming under British control, but the Qing Empire of the time refused the validity of the treaty, claiming that Tibet( being part of China), did not have the right to enter into treaties with foreign powers (Scott, 2008).…”

“…They differed in many ways. And the test was as to whether any one of them would have a more dominating position than the other on the border and in Asia itself (Scott, 2008).…”

“…To add to the distrust, that country has materially helped another neighbor of ours [Pakistan] to become a covert nuclear weapons state". (Scott, 2008) The same approach was adopted by the Indian general (Amarjit Kalkat), who evaluated the purpose of these tests to counter-balance China in the region. He further asserted that the political world venerates the most equals, and hence it was incumbent upon India to be on equal footing with China.…”

The Persistency of the India–Pakistan Conflict: Chances and Obstacles of the Bilateral Composite Dialogue

“…Despite these developments, China and India are likely to remain strategic competitors rather than real partners (cf. Mohan, 2012;Pant, 2012;Scott, 2008). China's development of ports and other strategically sensitive infrastructure projects in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is an indicator of this strategic competition.…”

‘Are We (Really) Brothers?’: Contemporary India as Observed by Chinese Diplomats

“…Whether Sino-Indian relations will head for rivalry and conflict, or rather towards the construction of a synergetic relationship between two non-Western emerging powers, is a captivating question. Conjectures on power struggles and a rising Sino-Indian rivalry still dominate the literature, especially in the West (Frazier, 2004;Egreteau, 2007;Scott, 2008;Manson, 2010;Frankel, 2011). In contrast, a marginal, yet rising, indigenous school of thought focuses on the tremendous potential that a China-India symbiotic cooperation can offer to 21st century Asia.…”