CIAO DATE: 06/02

The India-China Relationship

Introduction

The subject of India-China relations has become increasingly important to the U.S. policymaking community. The world's two most populous nations have seen their status on the world stage rise in recent years due to the impressive development of their economics and to the growoing strategic importance both countries hold in their dynamic and potentially volatile part of the world. The United States must respond by developing coherent policies toward both countires that take account of their influence over Asia, and over each other.

The India-China Project is a long-term initiative of both the Asia Society and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars that aims to give U.S. policymakers the direction needed to develop their policies toward India and China. The Project commissioned an agenda-setting research volume, in which scholars from political science, history, economics, international relations, and security studies‹with regional expertise in both India and China‹have drafted individual chapters. Following the submission of these first drafts, the chapters¹ authors and the co-editors participated in workshops held in Beijing, Shanghai, New Delhi, and Bangalore in order to get feedback from experts in both India and China.

The authors presented their preliminary ideas to India- and China-focused representatives of the American policymaking and analytical communities in Washington, D.C., during a conference held at the Woodrow Wilson Center on November 30, 2001. The conference provided the authors with the opportunity to discuss their findings with and get input from the participants as they prepare the final revisions of their chapters.

The conference featured four main sessions, each of which addressed a particular aspect of the India-China question: first, the ways in which the Indians and Chinese perceive each other; second, the political and security issues of concern to their relationship; third, the implications of the respective economic development and reform processes of the two nations, as well as their growing economic influence in the region; and finally, how the United States should take India-China relations into account when formulating its own policy in Asia. Summaries of each session follow below.

One observation worth noting at the outset is that the audience included a much greater representation of Indians and India-focused scholars than Chinese and China-focused scholars, and in the course of the discussions the India specialists in the audience were much more vocal than the Chinese. These circumstances may or may not have had an impact on the debates as they developed following panelists' presentations, but they should be taken into account as readers sort through the session summaries below.

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