India's Perception Of The One Belt And One Road Initiative And The Future Of China-India Cooperation

Since The Belt and Road initiative proposed in 2013,it has developed for nearly 5 years.When China wanted to cooperate with other countries under the framework of The Belt and Road initiative,other countries had different perception of the initiative compared with the propaganda discourse by China since their strategic environment,history and national conditions.This paper highlights the development of 21 st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative;studies India's perception of the initiative and its diplomatic practice;discusses the future of China-India relations.The literature research method is the main research method in this paper.After analyzing official documents from Chinese government,the speeches on 21 st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative by Indian officials and scholars and news reports in Indian media,the negative perception on this initiative by India can be indicated.The negative perception makes Indian government only seek for cooperation on the meeting-point of national interests with China instead of joining in the initiative.India has cooperated with China on some projects,but also raised Project Mausam and Act East Policy as counter-measures.Realism scholars has used national interests as analytical perspective but have some limitations,so this paper introduces perception and misperception as analytic tool.The paper analyses the reasons of perception and misperception from the view of concepts from international political perception theory like thinking set,historical burden,expectations and fears.After all,the paper analyses the future of China-India relations.The situation of China-India relations will mix up with strategic distrust and limited cooperation.To promote China-India relations and 21 st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative,Chinese government should do more on the construction of discourse system and diplomatic practice.