Dear Friend,

There is never a quiet summer in India-China relations. China’s transgression in the Doklam area of Bhutan on 16 June kept us at the ICS busy with analysis and commentary on the one hand and a series of meetings and activities on the other showcasing the ICS’ reputation as the go-to place for sober analysis on China.

Events and Activities

The ICS launched a new initiative, the ICS Lecture Series, in collaboration with the India International Centre, New Delhi with Amb. Shyam Saran, ICS Governing Council Member and former Foreign Secretary, delivering the first lecture on 20 July. This major lecture titled, ‘Is a China-centric World Order Inevitable?’ can be read here and also seen on the ICS YouTube channel.

Our Wednesday Seminars in June were on a wide-ranging mix of topics – Public-Private Partnerships on Healthcare in China and India by ICS Adjunct Fellow, Prof. Rama V. Baru of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Associate Fellow, Dr. Madhurima Nundy; Chinese Behaviour and Actions in South China Sea by Dr. Christopher Roberts of the University of New South Wales, held in collaboration with the Australia India Institute, New Delhi (listen on SoundCloud); India-China Relations by ICS Adjunct Fellow, Dr. Raviprasad Narayanan of JNU; and China’s engagements in Latin America by Amb.  R. Viswanathan (watch on YouTube). We ended the month with a special lecture on the Chinese Diaspora in Pakistan by Ms. Alice Ping-Hsiu Lin, a doctoral student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The ICS hosted two delegations from China during this period. The first was from the China Institute of International Studies led by Vice-President Dong Manyuan (4 July) and another led by the World Affairs Press also under China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (6 July). Both delegations covered issues related to the upcoming BRICS summit in Xiamen and India-China relations.

Publications 

The ICS released a new Monograph titled, Health Service Systems in Transition: Challenges in India and China comprising a collection of papers by public health scholars from Beijing, Delhi and Shanghai, and edited by Associate Fellow, Dr. Madhurima Nundy (download).

Dev Lewis at the Digital Asia Hub in Hong Kong contributed an ICS Occasional Paper on China’s Global Internet Ambitions, with a focus on the engagements and growing presence of Chinese technology firms in Southeast Asia and the challenges these pose for the region.

We have revived our practice of putting out Hindi translations of our analyses and you can now read the latest translations on health security in India and China and on Sino-Indian border trade at Jelep La.

In the Media 

ICS Faculty contributed their analyses and views on the prolonged Doklam standoff in English, Hindi and other regional platforms. My predecessor Prof. Alka Acharya and I offered our views in The Wire, while I did so also in The Indian Express, Scroll.in, and India Today, among others. ICS Fellow Dr. Jabin T. Jacob wrote for the CatchNews and Gateway House. Both Amb. Saran and Dr. Jacob in separate pieces stressed China’s objective of undermining India’s ties with its neighbours in South Asia and particularly, Bhutan, while ICS Advisory Board Chairman and former Special Representative in the boundary negotiations with China, Amb. Shivshankar Menon was clear in stating that China was seeking to change the status quo in its ties with Bhutan and India.

In Hindi, we had pieces in the Hindustan by Prof. Acharya and in the Rashtriya Sahara by Dr. Jacob on the Doklam issue. ICS Adjunct Fellow, Dr. Nandakumar Janaradhanan of JNU wrote two pieces in Malayalam in the Janmabhumi daily (here and here) while Assistant Director, Dr. Aravind Yelery wrote in Marathi for the Maharashtra Times.

Faculty Updates

Associate Fellow, Dr. Tshering Chonzom was part of the International Visitor Leadership Programme organized by the State Department of the United States on decision-making processes in US foreign policy, travelling to the US between 3 and 21 July while ICS Research Associate Dr. P. K. Anand was in Venice for the ‘Made in China’ Summer School on labour relations in China from 17 to 23 July. Dr. Jacob was hosted by the Goa Area of the Western Naval Command for a talk on China’s foreign policy in the maritime dimension.

The ICS website and following us on Facebook and on Twitter are great ways of catching the latest on our activities and publications. You can also sign up to receive the latest information of our events and publications as well as browse the ICS’ YouTube and SoundCloud channels. Let me take this opportunity to thank you once again for your support to the ICS and look forwarding to seeing you at our future activities.

Warm regards,

Ashok K. Kantha
Director
Institute of Chinese Studies

Previous Updates

March-April 2017

May 2017

June 2017