Dear Friend,

The standoff between India and China arising from the Chinese transgression in the Doklam area of Bhutan was finally resolved at the end of  August. In the meantime, ICS faculty continued to offer their analyses and views on the issue. Through its wide variety of publications and events, ICS continues to take the leading role in informed academic and policy-oriented interventions on China in India and is gradually expanding its footprint abroad as well.

Events and Activities

The month of August witnessed the launch of a new initiative, ICS Conversations in collaboration with the India International Centre. The first conversation on the theme on Recent Developments in China-US Relations and their Impact was held on 22 August 2017 and had Amb. Shivshankar Menon, ICS Advisory Board Chairman and former Indian National Security Advisor as the lead speaker. This extremely well-received discussion was moderated by Mr. Zakka Jacob, Deputy Executive Editor, CNN News18 and is available on Soundcloud and YouTube.

Our Wednesday Seminars in August covered topics ranging from the India- China War in 1962  to China's urbanisation strategies with a focus on the new development project of Xiong'an (listen on Soundcloud) to China's management of Tibetan Buddhism and the question of reincarnation, the last by researchers from the Tibet Policy Institute, Dharamshala. 

We also hosted Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Stimson Center in the US for a talk titled, 'The Age of Uncertainty' (Soundcloud; YouTube) as well as Prof. David Arase, of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, on Chinese and Japanese Aid Competition in Africa (listen on Soundcloud). We hosted eminent defence analyst and China scholar, Dennis J. Blasko for a fascinating conversation on the ongoing restructuring and modernisation of the Chinese military. There was another lunch-conversation on recent trends in Chinese economy featuring Dr. Anoop Singh, former head of Asia-pacific at the IMF.

Publications 

The ICS journal, China Report published its latest issue in August with a special section penned by researchers from the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi.

Dr. Alagu Perumal Ramasamy, of the Loyola Institute of Business Administration in Chennai, has written an ICS Occasional Paper, Acquisition of Syngenta by ChemChina: Implications and Lessons for India, delving into what is believed to be one of the largest and boldest attempts to date by a Chinese firm to invest in business abroad.

The month also saw two ICS Analyses, one focusing on the Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis for the Doklam Standoff while another drew a comparison of the Yangtze River in Guizhou and the Mahanadi in Odisha drawing lessons on economic development models and connectivity among other things. In the ICS Blogs, Nepal received top billing with two pieces on China's increasing presence in the country as well as Nepal's views on the Doklam Standoff. 

ICS Fellow Dr. Jabin T. Jacob had a detailed examination of the employment numbers in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor  published in the E-International Relations portal as well as a short piece for the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public policy, Singapore, Contemporary India-China Relations: Of Copycats and Hubris. Also published in August was a chapter by him on China's 'belt and road' initiative in an edited volume, Foreign Policy and Security of India based on a conference at the University of Kerala. In the Chapter, Dr. Jacob explains the political and strategic goals behind the Chinese project as a new iteration of the ancient Chinese Concept of tianxia or 'all under heaven'.

In the Media

Doklam continued to remain the main talking point in the writings and interactions with the media in English and Hindi media platforms. I gave detailed interviews to The Hindu as well as to the Singapore-base Channel News Asia before the final resolution of the dispute explaining the strong response by both India and Bhutan against Chinese assertiveness. I also offered my views on the resolution in The Economic Times, ANI News, The Print, Deccan Herald, Times of India, and Dainik Jagran. Prof. Acharya offered her views on the BRICS Summit in Xiamen in September to CNC News and Associated Press.

ICS Honorary Fellow Mr. Ravi Bhoothalingam had a series of two articles on India-China relations in The Wire- Psychology Could Be a Key to Solving the India-China Conundrum and India and China are Stuck in a Decades- Old Sibling Rivalry. The India-China standoff was also the subject of several talks by Amb. Shivshankar Menon at the Brookings India for The Indian Express, and The Print as well as at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore.

Faculty Updates

Two two-year projects funded by the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) were successfully completed and submitted by Assistant Director and Associate fellow Dr. Aravind Yelery and Associate Fellow Dr. Tshering Chonzom. Dr. Yelery project was titled '2016, China's Market Economy Status and its Implications for Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises: A Study of Institutional Responses and Micro-economic Transitions in India'. Dr. Chonzom was working on 'Indian and Chinese Ethnic Minority Policies: Comparing and Contrasting the Indo- Naga and the Sino-Tibetan Cases'.

Dr. Yelery also had a guest lecture on 'Chinese Economic Diplomacy' at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, on 29 August 2017, while Fellow, Dr. Jacob spoke on the challenges of infrastructure building cooperation at a conference on the Istanbul  Process for Afghanistan organized by the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing in mid-August. ICS Honorary Fellow, Prof. Sreemati Chakrabarti of the University of Delhi attended a BRICS Seminar on Governance organised by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee from 17- 18 August in Quanzhou, Fujian.

Do visit the ICS website for more details as well as follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up to receive the latest information about our events and publications and subscribe to the ICS' YouTube and Soundcloud channels to catch events you might have missed. I thank you once again for your support to the ICS and hope to see you at our future events.

Warm regards,

Ashok K. Kantha
Director
Institute of Chinese Studies

Previous Updates

July 2017

May 2017