Category: Borders

• Rethinking India’s Relations with China

  

  NEARLY SIX YEARS after the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020, India-China relations appear to be entering a phase of cautious recovery. A series of recent developments—ranging from the relaxation of trade restrictions to renewed diplomatic engagement and incremental progress on border management—have prompted claims that bilateral ties are back on an “upward trajectory”…

• Why China is building villages near LAC

  

  ON MARCH 26, China’s State Council announced the creation of a new county — equivalent to a district-level administrative unit in the Chinese political-administrative system — in Xinjiang, called Cenling…

• Dealing with India’s China Challenge

  

  WHEN ASKED IN 1924 why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, the British mountaineer George Mallory is reported to have replied, “Because it’s there.” He would disappear on Everest later that same year during an attempt to reach the summit…

• China’s calculated neutrality on Pahalgam

  

  CHINA HAS ISSUED a series of statements in the wake of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. How do we interpret these and what do they tell us about how it views India and Pakistan?…

• India-China relations at 75: An uncertain thaw

  

  INDIA’S EXTERNAL AFFAIRS minister S Jaishankar has talked about “an unsettled world… one with a lot of turbulence and volatility”. The Communist Party of China general secretary and Chinese President Xi Jinping has similarly stated that the world was undergoing “great changes unseen in a century”…

• India-China Border Tensions Are Likely to Continue

  

  AT THE END of January, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited China in the latest step in an unfolding thaw in the relationship between the two countries. The thaw had begun in October last year with the conclusion of a bilateral agreement on the disengagement of troops from two points at the Line of Actual…

• Indian Foreign Secretary’s Visit to Beijing Underlines New Delhi’s Limited Options

  Originally published as ‘Vikram Misri’s Beijing visit underlines India’s limited options’, Deccan Herald, 4 February 2025. At the end of January, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited China in the latest step in an unfolding thaw in the bilateral relationship. It should be clear, however, from the statements put out by each side on the meeting…

• Beyond the Military Prism: China’s Development Objectives in Xiaokang Villages in Tibet Autonomous Region

  

  In 2017, China unveiled a policy to develop more than 600 bianjing xiaokang cun, or ‘moderately well-off border villages’, in 21 border counties in the Tibet Autonomous Region. This study examines how the policy is being implemented in 44 villages in four border counties in Ngari prefecture and in Droma county in Shigatse City using…

• Doval-Wang SR Talks: Back to the Grind

  Originally published as, ‘Two steps forward, one step back’, The Indian Express, 21 December 2024. p.11. Published online as ‘On India-China ties, Delhi takes one step forward, two steps back’. While Indian statements on the bilateral relationship with China are exercises in brevity, Chinese statements are more expansive by comparison. Taken together, however, they provide…