Classifying China-India Relationships: Cooperation, Competition and Conflict

Abstract

As major neighbors, Sino-Indian relations affects both countries’ development and security interests and impacts stability and development on a global and regional scale. This relationship is the product of bilateral strategic perceptions and policy choices coupled by active engagement and interaction. This study scrutinizes the classification of China-India relationship types and the various factors affecting them from multiple perspectives through a literature review to ascertains the characteristics and nature of strategic interactions between Sino-Indian relations at the global, regional and bilateral levels. China-India relationships can be divided into three types, namely cooperation, competition and conflict, which determine the development trend of long-term relations. At the global level, China and India share common development demands and a common desire to restore their status as great powers, leading them to have consistent strategic interests and common positions on specific global affairs. At the regional level, the strategic spaces of the two countries overlap in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, and strategic competition is prone to occur. At the bilateral level, mainly border conflicts and trade imbalances make it difficult to deepen bilateral cooperation. The strategic foundation of the China-India cooperative relationship at the global, regional, and bilateral dimensions is also weakening, with trends showing leaning toward competition and conflict escalation. Keywords: China-India relationships; relationship types; competition; cooperation; conflict