China-India relations in the representations of contemporary PRC researchers

Abstract

Since the establishment of the diplomatic relations, the interaction between the PRC and India has developed unevenly: the periods of active cooperation were followed by confrontation, and a gradual normalization. Since the last change of the political leadership in China (in 2012 Xi Jinping came to power) and in India (in 2014 the N. Modi administration took office), a new path of their relations has begun from the so-called “peaceful coexistence to armed coexistence”. The previous hopes for effective political interaction (even while maintaining a high level of economic cooperation) are met with a fundamentally different understanding of each other by the two countries. The renewed border conflict between the two states has demonstrated that. And if the Indian political circles securitize the Chinese problem, the PRC’s position is mainly based on the perception of its neighbor through the prism of the relations between Delhi and Washington, as well as through the intensity of the anti-Chinese discourse of the Indian elites. In that situation, the asymmetrical nature of the relations between the two sides is considered by researchers within the frame of a status theory.

At the same time, considering the conflict potential, Chinese experts continue to seek the ways of interaction with India, focusing on their historical background and common destiny, the similar problems and views on the global economic and political systems.