India’s China Challenge: A Journey Through China’s Rise and What It Means for India Ananth Krishnan

HarperCollins Publishers, Noida, 2020, ISBN 9789390327683, 435 pp, Rs 599

Abstract

In rhetorics, India-China relations are largely perceived to be pivoted in the bedrock principle of Panchsheel—the vision of “Peaceful coexistence”. With the 1962 War resulting in the departure from the sloganeering of “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai”, the 70 years of the India-China ties have staggered over time and have increasingly become volatile as witnessed with the 2020 military stand-off in Eastern Ladakh. With the ties reaching their lowest, the unsettled border dispute holds a greater bearing on the ties-difficult to delink from the overall bilateral ties. With new differences added to the old dispute, the bilateral ties have become fragile with time despite the relative peace. Most precisely, what provides the context to the book are the three key situational factors: First, 2020, marked the seventh anniversary of the India-China diplomatic ties; second, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic from the Wuhan epidemic; and finally, the violent scuffle in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh.