China-India relations sank to a new low in 2017, seeing the ''roughest year ever" with added risks of direct confrontation, said Zhang Jiadong, director of the Center for South Asian Studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, according to an article in
The Paper.
India has manifested direct opposition against the China-led Belt and Road Initiative by proposing alternative schemes, the scholar said. The Doklam border standoff, although peacefully resolved, is believed to have added to the possibility of military conflict in the future. Geopolitical competition is also growing ever stronger between China and India in the Indian Ocean.
As India becomes increasingly devoted to boosting local manufacturing, potential trade imbalances will become a new problem that could spark mutual hostility between China and India, Zhang said. Nationalist sentiments have already damaged the bilateral relationship as new media increasingly enables their circulation.
Traditionally, China chooses to maintain a distance from India to avoid conflicts. But that no longer works, he said. It seems only right at the moment for China to keep up cultural and trade exchanges with India while playing down interactions on political and military levels. But this approach will also face many challenges, Zhang said.
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