China-India and China-Russia Relationships - Article Example

Topic: CHINA IN THE WORLD (Name) (Institution) (Grade Course) (Tutor’s Name) 26/03/08 Introduction The people’s republic of China has of late emerged as a world superpower. In realizing this, the states that were previously regarded as the superpowers are feeling the presence of the new entrant in influencing other states. Their dominance is being threatened in areas regarding trade and political leaning. The greatest threat is being posed to the US which according to world political analysts perceives herself as the godfather or rather acts as a prefect to the rest of the world. With the rise of China, the US has made it her business to court as many states as possible to her fold to counter the influence of china whose economic growth is buoyed by her massive population that consists of skilled manpower and provides a ready market for her manufactured goods. By the look of things, the US plays a great role in determining who China chooses to her strategic partner. To prove to one another the amount of influence and power each has, they court one state simultaneously. The relationships being forged by both, with other countries are both military and political. This article takes a closer look at how China relates with two countries, India and Russia, comparing and contrasting both relationships. China - India Relationship India and China claim to be the world’s two oldest and largest civilizations whose interests in the world of international politics rarely converge. Since gaining its sovereignty as an independent state in 1947, the country has followed its own political path in developing a foreign policy. They have a better understanding on this relationship it is wise to phase it into two sections as before and after the cold war. The proceedings of the cold war had a very significant role to play in deciding the course that their relationship took. The relationship has been described to be a see-saw like relationship. China India before the cold war Both leaders in the two countries envisioned a close relationship seeing them both become regional allies with important seats at the world table. The two countries had great potential and no additional territorial ambitions thus a lot in common. Their economic growth was spurred by the need to satisfy their ever expanding populations hence a call for technological advancement. This being their main focus, the two countries took to the sidelines as the cold war intensified. The cold war was only a war of words between the US and her rival the USSR which later did shed some territories to become Russia. However, there were cases of real war in the territories that they competed for control over such as Vietnam and Bosnia. (Van, 2003 p.42) The mutual friendship and goodwill between the two continued without a hitch helping one another grow by initiating bilateral trade agreements given that they both shared a common boarder. In fact India was the first country to recognize the Peoples Republic of China as the single voice for the people of China. Later on, in the early 1960's, there arose a boarder dispute between them. The dispute escalated to a rather unexpected high level that culminated in a surprise attack of some parts of India by China in 1962. The war resulted into China taking some parts of India which up to now India still claims to be part of her rightful territory. (Van, 2003 p.101-104) The aggression and bitter memories still lingered as the dent brought forth by the war was never healed. The affair between the two was not to recuperate for a long time as another blow for India was on the way. In1963, Pakistan ceded about 5,800 square kilometers of Indian Kashmir to china. India, bent on a more peaceful environment and co-existence in order to pursue her goals, restrained herself from going to war to claim her territories. In 1965, there arose a conflict between India and Pakistan. The prevailing hostilities between china and India went a notch higher as china opted to take sides with Pakistan and even accusing India of “criminal aggression”. Pakistan had been a traditional enemy of India where India insisted on being militarily superior to her foe. Now, with the entrant of china into the war, India opted for a policy accommodation knowing very well that they could never win a war with china who had questionably increased her military might overwhelmingly. With China becoming a benefactor of Pakistan, India sought to strike a balance by strengthening ties with the USSR. Such ties earned India a lot of military and financial aid though India maintained it was non-aligned. (Smith, 2007 p.16) By the late 1960's and early 1970's there had arose a global division in countries that supported the US sponsored form of governance capitalism and the USSR sponsored form of governance that was initially called socialism but adopted different names in some countries. With the intensity of the cold war picking speed, USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The world watched as the USSR increased its military capabilities. Financial and military aid was offered to nations that pledged to adopt its proposed form of governance. USSR's efforts were mostly directed to its Asian neighbors. The US sensed the need to get more involved in the region in order to avoid needless wars such as the one witnessed in Afghanistan. With that idea in mind the US decided to get more involved in that region. Together with China they started to offer military and financial aid to Pakistan. Post cold war relations The end of the cold war can be said to be marked by the collapse and disintegration of the USSR, throughout the ordeal of the cold war sharp divisions arose among nations depending on their inclinations. India had managed to preserve its nonalignment policy given that her neighbor china faltered and was aligned to the USSR. After the cold war, nations realized the losses that they had incurred as a result of the global division. Of late, china and India have made tremendous efforts to restore the kind of relationship they had before their war in 1962. Efforts have been made to reopen the closed boarders with the signing of memorandums. However, India is still skeptical about the offered friendship and goodwill of china. This untrustworthy attitude towards china is cultivated by the fact that china still retains considerable transactions with India's enemy Pakistan. Many countries in Asia have closely monitored the uneasy peace that prevails between the two previously conflicting neighbors. (Van, 2003 p.56-57) To retaliate on the issue of Pakistan, India for some time supported the liberation of Tibet. The Indian government even offered protection of some exiled Tibetan spiritual leaders. In 1998, The Indian Prime minister by then, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee even met with one of the spiritual leaders, Dalai Lama. According to the Rapporteur, Justin Sommers, Conference report (2004) the Indian government has over time appeared to be the serious and committed partner in the effort of mending ties. India hopes that in reuniting the two of them, India will have a chance to borrow the technology that has pushed china forward economically to become a super power that only offers real threat to US dominance in the global stage. On the other hand China has been sort of proud of its success that it has achieved in two decades which India has failed to match knowing very well that they had started out at the same time. It has also been said that China is almost indifferent to china as India offers no real threat either economically or militarily. What China perceives as the real threat is Japan due to its technological prowess and their past history in war with Japan also rouses uneasiness among the two. As such India was denied a seat at UN's Security Council due to its perpetual reference as part of china being rightfully hers. China therefore approaches its interaction with India in the context of a broader world view. The reconciliation efforts were first witnessed in 1979 when China declared that it had seen the importance of concentrating her financial strength on cultivating peaceful and stable relationships with their neighbors. However in 1998, their relationship soured temporarily after India's nuclear testing though china insists it was not the tests themselves that they perceived as a threat. India has also made it a point to stay away from the issue of Tibet and even managed to quell movements in India that supported religious freedom and independence in Tibet. Trade between the two has also picked up. A recent study by the Chinese Head office showed that bilateral trade reached $18.7 billion in 2005 a figure that has since been on the upward trend. This was attributed to the opening of trade in the Qinhai boarder and the Qinhai-Tibet railway. The railway line forms an integral part of China's transport system. Again China's prime ministers, by then Naraimha Rao visit to India in1993, helped in lowering the level of suspicion between the two. China and Russia These are the world largest countries by size. China boarders Russia on one front and India on the other hence all the three have had an affair either directly or indirectly. It is hard to look into this relationship as we did look at the one for China and India due to the fact that Russia as a country was not existent till the collapse of the USSR. It is important to mention that during the cold war china had broken ties with the US and adopted USSR’s ideology of communism which it retains up to now against the most common form initiated by the US called capitalism. Thus we look at their relationship starting from the 1990's when the tensions characteristic of the cold war had subsided. China and Russia's level of technology and the need to improve their abilities to jointly meet new challenges and new threats have led them into joint projects in their realization of their need to counter US influence that led to the fall of USSR during the cold war. The objects of research for their joint investigations spread from educational, military, and environmental, among other fields. In recent times they undertook a study of the water and planktons in Lake Baikal, and proceeded to study the ancient climate and ancient environment of the Eurasian continent. through research on the sensitive areas of Lake Baikal and its location Siberia, the two have adhered to universally acknowledged global climate policies, and master the law governing global climatic change. This is what is called "expecting the reality to correspond to the name". The two "largest" is enriching the connotation of the already established strategic cooperative partnership, which is a concrete expression of the two countries' highly political mutual trust relationship. Bilateral mutual trust is based on their common interests.(Wilson, 2004) The need to safeguard one another's territory and welfare was witnessed during the toxic chemical spill on the Songhua River whose waters flow on to Khabarovsk. With a highly responsible level of attitude, the Chinese government apologized vowed to take all necessary and effective measures to minimize the pollution and reduce the damage to the Russian side. The Chinese government promised to look at the relevant problems that could result into such an incident in future and be properly solved with joint efforts and close cooperation. Beijing called for the building of a temporary dam on the Fuyuan waterway to help protect Khabarovsk's water sources from pollution. The Songhua River flows into the Heilong, which the Fuyuan joins with the Ussuri River to become the Amur near Khabarovsk. The Siberian city draws its water from the lower reaches of the Fuyuan. London's "The Guardian" noted that, thousands of Chinese and Russian people had suffered from their government's delayed and secretive response to the spill. It thus seems clear that China is eager not to allow a potential ecological disaster to harm a mutually beneficial relationship. Their common will to safeguard their own sovereignty and territorial integrity, their common responsibility to maintain regional security and stability, their common need to expand the space for their own economic development, and their common wish to establish a fair and reasonable international political and economic new order—ll. These bring before the two countries the heavy responsibility to develop themselves and create a favorable surrounding environment. These common points have helped the two large neighboring countries to constantly engage in mutual communication, collaboration and coordination. (Wilson, 2004 p.43-62) Thus far, China has given Russia resolute support to Russia in its actions of attacking terrorism and its defense of sovereignty, Russia, in turn, has expressed its firm stance of support to China in its efforts for realization of national reunification and opposition to secessionism. However, China has had to relinquish on some of her territories such as Hong Kong and the recent one on Tibet. It can be said that respect and support for each other's core interests are the most fundamental base for maintaining high political mutual trust. (Garnett, 2000 p.36) This Russia demonstrated by being on China's side as the whole world called for China to give up her foreign territories. All-round, mutually beneficial cooperation brings benefits to the Chinese and Russian peoples. After the general framework for the strategic cooperative partnership has been clearly defined, China-Russia relationship has switched to the stage of the main tasks of tamping the foundation, implementing the agreement and solving specific problems. True, the two countries' respective strategic consideration, national characteristics, cultural backgrounds and historical origins would still lead to the existence of differences and problems between the two sides in some aspects, but the foundation of common interests can determine the future of the smooth development of bilateral ties. One of the rare frictions between the two countries stems from the issues of trade and labor. China is famous the world over for its possession of a large skilled manpower that enables her manufacturing industries to operate with minimal labor costs. Due to the high populations in China, Russia has offered “greener pastures” to the unskilled and unemployed in China who cross the boarder into Russian territories in such of elusive work. The extensive neighbors are also endowed with a variety of natural resources. China is famous for its coal mines which offer enough energy resources to her industries at very favorable cost. Such characteristics have seen companies bent on making a gain out of the cheap available skilled and unskilled labor plus cheap energy resources. The Russian government has been frequently accused of allowing an influx of cheap goods and labor into the Russian territory thereby crowding out the seemingly more expensive local goods and labor. (Garnett, 2000 p.221) Only by consolidating the social foundation of bilateral relations, is it possible to ensure friendship for generations to come. Leaders of the two nations are determined to bring their relationship closer to the people by each country recognizing each others new year as they use different calendars. The "Russia Year" was held in China in 2006, and the "China Year" was held in Russia last year. That is aimed at furthering mutual understanding and traditional friendship of the two peoples. In addition, cooperation between neighboring regions on the two sides of the over 4,300 km-long common boundary of the two countries has opened a new page in the annals of the two countries under the personal promotion by top leaders of the two nations. Such persistent efforts provide an important guarantee for the two sides to become permanent good neighbors, good friends and good partners. The two countries in August last year corroborated the common evaluation made by heads of state of China and Russia: China-Russia relationship has reached an unprecedented level. It is predictable that the China-Russia affair will continue to head for a new height flourish more. Conclusions China has had the opportunity to experience the best and the worst from two of her neighbors in terms of being friendly and hostile at the same time. The three neighbors are almost involved in the industries thus there is the element of competitiveness. Much of the hostility has emanated from India rather than Russia which has actively taken the role of a development partner all along. Analysts widely concluded that Moscow was seeking to market its aircraft, while Beijing sought to learn the "latest Russian methods" that could be used to thwart a possible US intervention should China decide to settle scores with Taiwan. With the two also carrying out joint military drills frequently, most western editorials noted that the drill's purpose was to serve as a notice to Washington that Moscow and Beijing would not accept US military supremacy in the Far East in the long run. Moscow and Beijing are, moreover, partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which is one of several regional groupings that both countries are fostering that do not include the United States. Nonetheless, it is not clear whether it will prove to be much more than a propaganda forum for dictators. Furthermore, it remains to be seen how far Russia will be willing to go in support of in case of US intervention on China's military activities. India remains almost irrelevant to China in military activities. Work cited sources Borisov & Koloskov, Soviet- Chinese relations, 1945-1970, Bombay: Indiana University Press1975 Wishnick, Mending fences: the evolution of Moscow's China policy, from Brezhnev to Yeltsin, New York: University of Washington Press, 2001. Garnett, Rapprochment or Rivalry? Russia-China relations in changing Asia, London: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Van Praagh, The greater game: India's race with destiny and China, Beijing: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2003. Smith, The dragon and the elephant: China, India and the new world order, Shanghai: Profile Books Limited, 2007. Westad, Brothers in arms: The rise and fall of the Sino-Soviet alliance, London: Stanford University Press, 1998. Wilson, Russian-Chinese relations in the post soviet-era, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2004. Rapporteur, Justin Sommers, Conference report: The India-China relationship; what the US needs to know, 2001. Read More