The India–China bilateral relationship: a ‘serious and enduring rivalry’

ABSTRACT Sino-Indian relations have seen many ups and downs since the late 1940s. This paper surveys the bilateral relationship by considering their border dispute, status-competition, and economic relations before it examines various geostrategic points of contention, including: relations with Pakistan and the United States; bilateral water disputes; China's Belt and Road Initiative; nuclear weapons policies; and maritime competition in the Indian Ocean. The Galwan Valley incident in June 2020 – which saw Indian and Chinese soldiers killing each other with improvised weapons – is treated as an inflection point; thereafter the bilateral relationship has deteriorated from what T.V. Paul called a ‘managed and enduring rivalry' in 2018 into a ‘serious and enduring rivalry’ now. This finding provides wider context for the papers which follow in this special edition; these consider whether Sino-Indian rivalry presents, on balance, more opportunities or greater challenges to the smaller states in the Indian Ocean region.