INDO CHINA RELATIONSHIP

EARLY HISTORY India and China had relatively little modern political contact before the 1950s.

However, both countries have had extensive and close historical cultural contact since the 2nd century BCE,especially with the transmission ofBuddhism from India to China.

Trade relations via the Silk Road acted as economic contact between the two regions.

MIDDLE AGES After the transmission of Buddhism from India to China from

the 1st century onwards, many Indian scholars and monks travelled to China, such as Batuo ( 464-495 CE)—first abbot of the Shaolin Monastery—and Bodhidharma—founder of Chan/Zen Buddhism.

while many Chinese scholars and monks also travelled to India, such as Xuanzang (b. 604) and I Ching (635-713), both of whom were students at Nalanda University in Bihar.

Xuanzang wrote the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, an account of his journey to India, which later inspired Wu Cheng'en's Ming Dynastynovel Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

GEOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW

GEOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW

China and India are separated by the formidable geographical obstacles of the Himalayas. China and India today share a border along the Himalayas with Nepal and Bhutan acting as buffer states. Parts of the disputed Kashmir region claimed by India are claimed and administered by either Pakistan (Azad Kashmirand Gilgit and Baltistan) or by the PRC (Aksai Chin).

The Government of Pakistan on its maps shows the Aksai Chin area as mostly within China and labels the boundary "Frontier Undefined" while India holds that Aksai Chin is illegally occupied by the PRC.

China and India also dispute most of Arunachal Pradesh at the far eastern end of the Himalayas. However, both countries have agreed to respect the Line of Actual Control here; the area just north of Tawang is seen as a potential flashpoint.

SINO-SIKH WAR In the 18th to 19th centuries, the Sikh Confederacy of the Punjab region in India was

expanding into neighbouring lands. It had annexed Ladakh into the state of Jammu in 1834.

In 1841, they invaded Tibet with an army and overran parts of western Tibet. Chinese forces defeated the Sikh army in December 1841, forcing the Sikh army to withdraw from Tibet, and in turn entered Ladakh and besieged Leh, where they were in turn defeated by the Sikh Army.

At this point, neither side wished to continue the conflict, as the Sikhs were embroiled in tensions with the British that would lead up to the First Anglo-Sikh War, while the Chinese was in the midst of the First Opium War with the British East India Company.

The Chinese and the Sikhs signed a treaty in September 1842, which stipulated no transgressions or interference in the other country's frontiers.

AFTER INDEPENDENCE Jawaharlal Nehru based his vision of "resurgent Asia" on

friendship between the two largest states of Asia; his vision of an internationalist foreign policy governed by the ethics of the Panchsheel, which he initially believed was shared by China, came to grief when it became clear that the two countries had a conflict of interest in Tibet, which had traditionally served as a geographical and political buffer zone, and where India believed it had inherited special privileges from the British Raj.

PANCHSILA AGREEMENT

In April 1954 ,  India and the PRC signed an eight-year agreement on Tibet that set forth the basis of their relationship 

mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Mutual non-aggression.

Mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

Equality and cooperation for mutual benefit.

Peaceful co-existence

1962 WAR

1962 Border disputes resulted in a short border war between the People's Republic of China and India in 20 October 1962.

The border clash resulted in a crushing defeat of India as the PRC pushed the Indian forces to within forty-eight kilometres of the Assam plains in the northeast and occupied strategic points in Ladakh, until the PRC declared a unilateral cease-fire on 21 November and withdrew twenty kilometers behind its contended line of control.

1960-70 India and the PRC renewed efforts to improve relations after Indian Prime

Minister Indira Gandhi's Congress party lost the 1977 elections to Morarji Desai'sJanata Party.

The new Desai government sought to improve long-strained relations with India and the PRC. In 1978, the Indian Minister of External Affairs Atal Bihari Vajpayee made a landmark visit to Beijing, and both nations officially re-established diplomatic relations in 1979.

The PRC modified its pro-Pakistan stand on Kashmir and appeared willing to remain silent on India's absorption of Sikkim and its special advisory relationship with Bhutan. 

1980-90 In 1984, squads of soldiers began actively patrolling the Sumdorong Chu Valley in 

ArunachaIndian l Pradesh (formerly NEFA), which is north of the McMahon Line as drawn on the Simla Treaty map but south of the ridge which Indian claims is meant to delineate the McMahon Line. The Sumdorong Chu valley "seemed to lie to the north of the McMahon line; but is south of the highest ridge in the area, and the McMahon line is meant to follow the highest points“

according to the Indian claims, whilst the Chinese did not recognise the McMahon Line as legitimate and were not prepared to accept an Indian claim line even further north than that. The Indian team left the area before the winter.

In the winter of 1986, the Chinese deployed their troops to the Sumdorong Chu before the Indian team could arrive in the summer and built a Helipad at Wandung.Surprised by the Chinese occupation, India's then Chief of Army Staff,General K.Sundarji, airlifted a brigade to the region

CONTD…

A warming trend in relations was facilitated by Rajiv Gandhi's visit to China in December 1988. The two sides issued a joint communiqué that stressed the need to restore friendly relations on the basis of the Panch Shila and noted the importance of the first visit by an Indian prime minister to China since Nehru's 1954 visit.

As the mid-1990s approached, slow but steady improvement in relations with China was visible. Top-level dialogue continued with the December 1991 visit of PRC premier Li Peng to India and the May 1992 visit to China of Indian president R. Venkataraman. Six rounds of talks of the Indian-Chinese Joint Working Group on the Border Issue were held between December 1988 and June 1993

Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Premier Li Peng signed the border agreement and three other agreements, primarily dealing with cross-border trade, and on increased cooperation on environmental issued (e.g. Pollution, Animal extinction, Global Warming, etc.) and in radio and television broadcasting during the former's visit to Beijing in September.

2000-10 With Indian President K. R. Narayanan's visit to China,

2000 marked a gradual re-engagement of Indian and Chinese diplomacy. In a major embarrassment for China, the 17th Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje, who was proclaimed by China, made a dramatic escape from Tibet to the Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim.

THE UNREASON DISPUTE

On July 6, 2006, China and India re-opened Nathula, an ancient trade route which was part of the Silk Road. Nathula is a pass through the Himalayas and it was closed 44 years prior to 2006 when the Sino-Indian War broke out in 1962. The initial agreement for the re-opening of the trade route was reached in 2003, and a final agreement was formalised on June 18, 2006. 

THE UNREASON DISPUTE In November 2006, China and India had a verbal spat over claim of the

north-east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. India claimed that China was occupying 38,000 square kilometres of its territory in Kashmir, while China claimed the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as its own.

In May 2007, China denied the application for visa from an Indian Administrative Service officer in Arunachal Pradesh. According to China, since Arunachal Pradesh is a territory of China, he would not need a visa to visit his own country.[46] Later in December 2007, China appeared to have reversed its policy by granting a visa to Marpe Sora, an Arunachal born professor in computer science.

 In January 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited China and met with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and had bilateral discussions related to trade, commerce, defence, military, and various other issues.

In October 2009, Asian Development Bank formally acknowledging Arunachal Pradesh as part of India, approved a loan to India for a development project there. Earlier China had exercised pressure on the bank to cease the loan, however India succeeded in securing the loan with the help of the United States and Japan. China expressed displeasure at ADB

SIMLA ACCORD 1913

The Simla Accord, or the Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet, [in] Simla,[1] is a treaty concerning the status of Tibet negotiated by representatives of the Republic of China, Tibet and the United Kingdom in Simla in 1913 and 1914.

• Until 2008 the British Government's position remained the same as had been since the Simla Accord of 1913: that China held suzerainty over Tibet but not sovereignty. Britain revised this view on 29TH October 2008, when it recognised Chinese sovereignty over Tibet by issuing a statement on its website

PRESENT STATUS

PRESENT STATUS Mr Xi has invited Mr Modi to visit China. The leadership of the two countries should provide

strategic direction and meet regularly, Mr Xi said after the two leaders met at the Hyderabad House.

China has committed investments worth $20 billion in India over the next five years, Mr Modi said. "I invited Chinese investment in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. I am glad two Chinese industrial parks will be built in India," the Prime Minister said. "The five-year economic and trade development plan is an important step."

The two countries have also decided to initiate talks on civil nuclear cooperation. The announcement is part of the Modi government's push to broaden its nuclear energy sector and comes on the heels of a deal India struck this month to buy uranium from Australia to increase its fuel supplies.

Among the 12 agreements India and China signed today is a Memorandum of Understanding on "peaceful uses of outer space".

They have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in Railways. The two neighbours have agreed to first work to raise the speed on an existing rail section from Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.

Mr Modi said China will open an additional route to Kailash Mansarovar via Nathu La. The decision he said, would help more Indians reach Kailash Mansarovar, in particular the old, as transportation on motorcycles would be available on the new route. "I would like to thank Xi Jinping on behalf of all Indians for a new route to Kailash Mansarovar," Mr Modi said. "This road will remain safe during the rainy season, too."

Shanghai and Mumbai will be sister cities. A similar agreement was signed in Gujarat on Wednesday for Ahmedabad and Guangzhou to be sister cities.

Mr Xi said China would support India in becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - a regional security body whose largest members are China and Russia.

"Respect for each other's sensitivities and concerns and peace and stability in our relations and along our borders are essential," PM Modi said, speaking to reporters after a one-on-one meeting with President Xi.

President Xi, the first Chinese president to visit India in eight years, has brought along with him a business delegation of 135 Chinese CEOs.