Hissing Dragon-Squirming Tiger:

Comparisons, Negotiations

and Attitudes continues...

As per Liu Yang and Guo Feng (1998), India seeks to achieve ‘hegemony in South Asia, contain China, control the Indian Ocean, and strive to become a military power in the contemporary world.’ However,

as per a Chinese military assessment of 1998, China was higher in overall

defense capability, with a score of 48.32 compared to India’s 41.37, and the only area in which China was inferior to India was in naval power. India was then assessed overall as ‘a sort of half-scale Japan.’

But what else besides the boundary and the Tibet/Dalai Lama

issues affect political China-India geo-strategic relations? Is Tibet the

only issue? A few other factors will also have their part to play. One is

the buffer zone/‘backyard theory’ factor, of which Tibet is a constant part. Another is Pakistan and the Pakistan-China ‘all-weather’ special relationship. Yet others are (2) the USA, (3) Japan-China-India or the once-proposed USA-Japan-Australia-India quadripartite strategic ‘understanding’, and (4) Russia.

To be continued...