The Long Years of China’s South Asia Policy

The concept of ‘national interests’ does not quite explain the various volte faces that communist China has made over its history, nor its concern with the global distribution of power. The Chinese seem to believe that there are no permanent (national) interests, and whether someone is a friend or enemy is decided by the world order and China’s or any other power’s role in and relationship with it. For China, order in itself is neither desirable nor undesirable but it is an adversarial world or domestic order that decides and forces Chinese response. This does not always mean an antagonistic or irreconcilable contradiction. Indeed, with a few exceptions, Chinese foreign policy has almost always tried to eschew confrontation. China’s identity as a permanent member of the UN Security Council since 1971 and as one of the five acknowledged nuclear powers has, however, meant that it has sought increasingly to take on a system-management role in the world. This in turn may not necessarily lead to the best of times between China and South Asia and, in particular, between China and India.