China and South Asia

‘Today, South Asia witnesses significant changes ranging from growing partnerships, unfolding opportunities to perceptible uncertainties; and China’s robust engagement with the region needs to be seen and understood through a fresh lens of strategic pragmatism and developmental reciprocity. This collection of papers, by both established and up-and-coming scholars of the countries involved, provides an excellent study of multiple aspects of the relationship and reflects diverse perspectives and complementary insights. The study, balancing sober thoughts, meaningful policy recommendations with sanguine expectations, also proves a worthwhile attempt to move beyond the conventional geopolitical approach.’

Zhang Li, Professor,Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

‘The profile of China–South Asia interactions is increasing day-by-day due to the Belt and Road Initiative, investments in infrastructure for connectivity, trade and tourism, but also due to the spread of terrorism and other non-traditional security challenges. This volume, which has gathered a number of scholars’ perspectives unravelling these interactions, is comprehensive in their coverage of subjects and themes and provide diversified opinions. Several contributors to the volume have reflected on the historical and contemporary interactions, asymmetries, balance of power, cooperation, competition or even elements of conflict emerging in the region and provide relevant studies.’

Srikanth Kondapalli, Professor,Chinese Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

‘This edited volume is a well-timed and powerful collection of seventeen chapters from eminent scholars across the world each taking a close and dispassionate look at China’s role in regional and global politics. It provides an international context against which China’s foreign policy behaviour and strategic thinking can be carefully compared and critically examined. In this analytically sophisticated and empirically rich volume, the authors have brilliantly offered systematic, graceful, and trenchant analyses of the critical factors that shape and influence China’s external relations. As such, it makes an enlightening addition to the scholarship on China’s foreign policy in the changing international environment.’

Ehsanul Haque, Professor,Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

‘South Asia has been moving closer to the very core of the India–China bilateral dynamics, as developments in this region vigorously overlap and intermesh, with both powers engaging and contending with the myriad challenges in very different ways. While most accounts seek to portray this complex engagement in terms of power politics, the voices from within the region have a more nuanced story. By bringing a host of scholars from South Asia, this volume would serve to invigorate the ongoing debates with fresh perspectives, closer to the ground realities and bring a much-needed balance to the dominant discourse.’

Alka Acharya, Professor,Centre for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

‘South Asia is a geographical centre and a place where cultures gather. Now it has become an active stage for the strategic competition of great powers. This book gathers some influential experts and scholars in China and South Asia, from the perspectives of history, geography, culture and economy, discusses the relationship between China and South Asian countries in-depth and comprehensively. Reading this book can help readers understand China’s South Asia policy, the trends and causes of changes in China–India relations, how to eliminate the uncertainty in China–India relations, and understand the importance of China–South Asia relations more comprehensively and accurately.’

Zhang Jiadong, Professor,Center for South Asian Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

‘There is now little doubt that China is a global superpower, if not the world’s preeminent political, economic and cultural player. The Chinese influx in South Asia, home to almost two billion people and arguably the single most important region in charting the future of the world in decades to come, is, therefore, of global significance. By charting numerous aspects of China’s historical and contemporary engagements with South Asia, most notably its uneasy relationship with India and growing strategic and economic influence in Pakistan, this volume offers critical insights into China’s ongoing South Asia odyssey. Whether China’s growing footprint heralds an egalitarian and sustainable development paradigm will have an impact on not only South Asia, but the world at large.’

Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, Professor,Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan