Sino-Indian Relations During The BJP Government Experience And Implications

The diplomatic agenda of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-dominated government (March 19, 1998 to May 21, 2004) has created far-reaching impacts on the complicated relations between India and China, the two neighboring Asian giants. Around a series of nuclear tests in May 1998, India's unexpectedly improper misbehaviors and provocative rhetoric about the so-called "China Threat" caused a crisis of the bilateral relations. Thanks to factors prevailing within China and India and the then favorable climate, a gradual and measured recovery of the normal relations between them has been seen. The improvements started with an obvious indecisiveness and hesitance from the India side after the drastic deterioration in 1998, followed by a slow-paced reciprocal regulation of their respective policies towards each other, and finally culminating in a promising climax. This trend is impressively illustrated by increasing high-level engagements such as K. R. Narayanan's visit to China (May 2000), the tours of Li Peng and Zhu Rongji (January 2001 and January 2002), and A. B. Vajpayee's visit to China (June 2003), confidence-building and other relevant events. The political and economical ties between Beijing and New Dehli have undergone significant amelioration.Certain basic predictions could be made based on an overall exploration of the ups and downs of the interaction between China and India. First, as major neighbors...