China in India's Neighbourhood

This book explores the scope and extent of the growing Chinese influence in India's neighbourhood and its impact on India as well as on Asian power politics. Through theoretical narratives and detailed case studies, it examines Chinese bilateral relationships in the Indian neighbourhood and looks at the extent and significance of Chinese influence through the lens of strategic, economic and infrastructural arrangements and Chinese interventions in South, Southeast, and Central Asia. The book takes into account regional voices and domestic political compulsions in understanding what they make of the Chinese narrative and examines how and whether the narrative has changed in recent years through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an instrument of Chinese public diplomacy. The volume also discusses how domestic narratives and compulsions in the Indian neighbourhood remain significant and how these, in turn, would impact the trajectory of Chinese public diplomacy. Intertwined through all these themes is a focus on the extent to which these could become potential flashpoints for India. This book will be a useful resource for academics and researchers working on Asian geopolitics and geo-economics, Chinese foreign policy, Chinese politics, international relations of Asia, Asian dynamics and Asian studies.

Anita Sengupta is an area studies specialist engaged in the study of the Eurasian region. Her areas of interest include issues of identity politics, migration, gender, borders, critical geopolitics and logistics. She is a regular commentator on debates on Asian affairs. She has been Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, Senior Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, and Director, Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata.She is currently Director, Asia in Global Affairs, Kolkata. Priya Singh is Associate Director at Asia in Global Affairs, Kolkata (AGA). Priya has a PhD from the University of Calcutta. Her thesis, Jewish and Democratic: Ethnicity, Gender and the Israeli State, mapped the intersectionality of ethnicity, gender and marginality situated in a receding democratic space from a South Asian perspective. Priya is a political scientist whose research encompasses issues pertaining to nationalism/ post-nationalism, identity, state formation, ethnicity, gender,migration and marginalisation in the West and South Asian context.

List of Figures vii List of Tables viii List of Contributors ix Acknowledgements xvi 1 Introduction 1 Anita Sengupta PART I Transcendental boundaries in neighbourhoods 27 2 China, India, and the aporia of neighbourhood 29 Samir Kumar Das 3 Bootlegging in South Asia's neighbourhood: Eastern Himalayas, disgruntled geographies, and "Chinese goods" 42 Anup Shekhar Chakraborty 4 Dance of the dragons: Bhutan-China relationship 63 Jigme Yeshe Lama PART II Connectivity and conundrum in the South Asian neighbourbood 81 5 Comrades in arms? Decoding China's Taliban gamble 83 Raghav Sharma 6 Connectivity, capital, and culture: China in Pakistan 103 Priya Singh 7 China in Bangladesh: The evolving relationship 121 Sriparna Pathak PART III Evolving dynamics and networks in the neighbourhood 137 8 The manifold aspects of Chinese presence in Iran 139 Bahram Amirahmadian 9 Prospects of continuity and change of China's role in Central Asia: Case studies of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan 156 Yunus Emre Gurbuz, Mehmet Yahya Çiçekli, Maksat Ajykan Uulu 10 The ethnic dynamics in Myanmar-China strategic interests: Implications for the region 172 Soma Ghosal PART IV Negotiating narratives of maritime neighbourhoods 189 11 Security narratives of China's impingement in the Indian Ocean theatre 191 Anindya Jyoti Majumdar 12 India-China rivalry in Sri Lanka: A nexus of historical narratives and political economy 206 Shiran Illanperuma and Sumanasiri Liyanage 13 The impacts of Chinese economic policies on Myanmar 221 San San Khine PART V Extended neighbourhood 239 14 The collapse of China's cooperation with Central and East Europe 241 Emilian Kavalski Conclusion 259 Priya Singh Index 267