Contemporary India's Cognitive Research On China

India is one of the most important neighbors in China's neighborhood,and China-India relations are a pair of bilateral relations that must be given priority consideration in China's neighborhood planning.Cognitive factors play an important role in the interaction of bilateral relations between the two countries.Cognition is the starting point of behavior.The different groups in contemporary India have different attitudes towards China.The Indian government and academic circles often have different perceptions of China,and there are a large number of objective and extreme impressions.Historically speaking,the understanding of China by successive Indian governments since 2000 has been in the same line with different characteristics.The vajpayee period saw China as a threat,especially as India was terrified by China's location and power.The perception of China by the singh and modi governments is revised from that of vajpayee,mainly in the traditional military and security sphere,especially after India's successful nuclear test,which has resulted in the country gaining DE facto and national status,although this status has not yet been recognized by the security council.As a result,the Indian government perceives China's nuclear threat as a less important part of India's national strategy.And as India's growing missile capabilities,such as the agni series,give it a basic long-range nuclear strike capability,its focus on China has shifted to historical issues,border disputes and geo-economic issues.However,despite the revision of the cognition and policy of the singh and modi governments towards China,they still inherit the pragmatic political philosophy of India and develop relations with China out of practical considerations rather than developing friendly relations of mutual trust and mutual benefit with China.Indian scholars have a complex understanding of China.A small number of scholars who know China well advocate that China and India should develop friendly relations.In particular,scholars with close ties to the Indian military have a negative perception of China,believing that China is still a threat to India in terms of military and security.The academic voice of being friendly to China mainly comes from the cultural circle.Scholars in this field have a profound understanding of Chinese society and culture and are familiar with the history of the exchanges between China and India.The media and the public have a relatively one-sided understanding of China,focusing on a few specific issues,such as the boundary issue,religious issue and historical issue.Negative impressions of China are often generated around theseissues.But the Indian public will also show some appreciation for China,mainly for its economic achievements.However,most Indian scholars and people believe that India's economic and social development will surpass China's in the long run because of its great institutional advantages.The Indian government's China policy is directly influenced by its perception of China.It is subject to the shadow of historical conflicts and realistic geopolitical considerations,as well as the influence of objective cognitive laws.On the theoretical level,Robert gervais constructed a model of the effects of cognitive factors on foreign policy.This model can fully explain the theoretical limitations of India's perception of China,in which desire thinking,cognitive congruence and cognitive dissonance are the three most important influencing factors.At the same time,India's perception of China is also affected by practical issues,including historical issues,border issues,Tibet and religious issues,and china-pakistan relations.Therefore,there is a certain degree of bias in India's understanding of China.This deviation is mainly reflected in three aspects: first,the gap between cognition and reality;Second,different aspects of China's cognitive differences;Third,cognitive and behavioral inconsistency.As a result,India's choice of economic,political and security strategies towards China also presents different characteristics.India's attitude toward China is more complex economically and politically,while its attitude toward security is more clearly defined.On the one hand,India actively seeks mutual trust with China to stabilize its relations with China politically;on the other hand,India hopes to make use of China's regional economic policies to boost its own development.India,on the other hand,is also somewhat suspicious of China's regional economic and security policies,fearing that China is promoting economic colonialism in South Asia.Therefore,while stabilizing relations with China,India has also vigorously developed its military forces,especially those represented by aircraft carriers and submarines,and supported China's economic cooperation policies in South Asia with reservations.