Beyond the protracted contest : redefining the Sino-Indian relationship
Creators: name: Merrington, Louise Michelle
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: DS740.5.I5 M47 2011
subject: China Foreign relations India
subject: India Foreign relations China
subject: China Boundaries India
subject: India Boundaries China

description: Situated within the framework of power transition theory - which traditionally examines the relationship between a dominant power and the rising powers beneath it, but which often fails to take into account how the relationships between these rising powers also affect the international system this thesis presents a new conception of the Sino-Indian relationship, moving away from traditional ideas of rivalry as the sole driver of the relationship. From the time a long-running colonial border dispute flared into the 1962 Sino-Indian War, rivalry - political, economic and military - has been the main prism through which the China-India relationship has been viewed. This type of analysis was most clearly articulated by John W. Garver in his 2001 book Protracted Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Twentieth Century. In the ten years since Garver's book was published, however, both China and India have built on the successes of their reform and opening policies to become more prominent players in international politics and economics, and this has in tum affected their bilateral relationship. Although the Sino-Indian relationship remains significantly asymmetrical, with China currently exhibiting far more power and influence than India, how the two countries relate to each other is beginning to have an interesting effect on the international system. Rivalry undoubtedly remains one of the driving forces in the relationship, particularly in regard to military and strategic issues such as naval activities in the Indian Ocean or nuclear weapons proliferation, but selective cooperation between the two countries, such as at the 2008 World Trade Organisation Doha Trade Round of trade talks or the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change summit in Copenhagen, is beginning to shape how global governance organisations conduct themselves. This will become even more apparent if and when India succeeds in its bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. It is therefore time to re-evaluate the framework in which the Sino-Indian relationship is viewed, taking into account these new complexities and moving away from the traditional characterisation of pure rivalry. Based in large part on seven months of fieldwork interviews with diplomats, analysts, academics and journalists from both countries, as well as some archival material and an extensive survey of literature, this research provides a broad overview of the contemporary Sino-Indian relationship in several spheres. These include local military rivalry (and occasional conflict) over the disputed border and within the greater context of China-India-Pakistan-US relations in South Asia; some economic and political rivalry for influence and energy resources in Central Asia and among the ASEAN nations, particularly Burma; and increasing cooperation in certain global governance organisations such as the WTO and the UN Climate Change Summit. In doing so, it aims to move away from the traditional construction of rivalry as the dominant driving force in the relationship, and paint a more complex picture of SinoIndian interactions and the way the relationship has evolved since the 1962 border war.