India-China Relations in the Post-Cold War Era

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War and the emergence of globalization, India-China relations have witnessed phenomenal improvement. This has been largely driven by economic factors, mainly trade.Political and strategic ties also appear to be determined by the economic bonhomie between the two biggest Asian neighbours. Ancient ties between the two nations was the result of the influence of Buddhism in China when relations were very cordial.During the colonial period the image of India and Indians became very low in the eyes of the Chinese as the British used them as security guards and soldiers who harassed the Chinese.In the early post-1949 period relations were more or less ideologically determined and both countries confronted each other from a position of weakness which led to the straining of relations manifested by the 1962 border war.Relations remained uneasy till the 1989 Rajiv Gandhi visit which opened new vistas, and economic factors began to override political ones. Now China and India see each other more as collaborators than as competitors in a resurgent Asia.