Avtar Singh Bhasin, Tanvi Madan, Ananth Krishnan

Wednesday Seminar | Zoom Webinar |4 August 2021

In his latest book, Nehru, Tibet and China, A.S. Bhasin seeks to challenge the conventional narrative handed down since the fifties of last century that China was perfidious and stabbed India in the back, while India promoted China's interests both bilaterally and internationally. By examining archives from the period, the author provides a new narrative about what transpired before and ultimately led to the 1962 War between India and China. In this seminar,the discussants have provided their comments on the book as well their expert understanding of the current scenario on the India-China border. The speakers also provided varying perspectives on the rapidly changing geopolitical context in South Asia, particularly India-China relations.

Shyam Saran, Lance Gore, Manoranjan Mohanty, Rana Mitter

Wednesday Seminar | Zoom Webinar |11 August, 2021

The clandestine grouping of a dozen young Chinese intellectuals this month a century ago in Shanghai has magnified into an event of world historical significance. Beaming with the spirit of “nationalism” never seen before in the preceding several decades of the struggle of the people of China against foreign imperialist domination and the corrupt, oppressive imperial rulers at home, the secret group with ten odd delegates representing fifty founding members has today evolved into the world’s largest ruling communist party with 95 million members. Scholars and observers both within mainland China and internationally, as also in the mainstream global press, have been debating the century-long journey of the CPC offering differing perspectives and varying interpretations. While Marxist debates have critically looked at the CPC journey through the ideological lens, and in the process highlighted several crucial and pertinent issues, namely a) within China, scholars have emphasized on the importance of holding on to Marxism-Leninism and never to lose the connect between the Party and the masses (drawing lessons from the collapse of the Soviet Union); b) ideological discourse within the ranks of diverse Marxian schools of thought has been in the range of contrasting the revolutionary founding principles at the party's opening congress in July 1921 with the “missing” Chinese people’s struggle against neoliberal finance capital-led class oppression globally and against (the US) imperialist domination; c) last but not least, there is the CPC invented so-called “socialism with Chinese characteristics” theoretical formulation which some dismiss as nothing but falsifying the ruling party’s socialist credentials as also witnessed during the grand fireworks as part of the centenary celebrations on July 1 with focus on “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” as the central element in Xi’s “Chinese Dream” campaign. At the same time, in the mainstream international press, including here in India, the CPC completing a hundred years is being analyzed in terms of the growing personality cult and larger-than-life authoritarian style of Xi Jinping, the “great leader” on one hand, and the People's Republic of China’s growing ambition to become "imperial" power, on the other. This seminar shed light on these issues with a contemporary lens.

Hans H. Tung, Mareike Ohlberg, Nivedita Rao Kommineni, Priyanka Pandit

Wednesday Seminar | Zoom Webinar |18 August, 2021

The pandemic has accelerated prevailing trends and triggered new ones in China. Erosion of Deng-Era institutions has led to centralization of power and coloured China’s response to the pandemic. An emphasis on ‘dual circulation’ and boosting domestic consumption to reduce reliance on exports will impact China’s position in global supply chains. A pivot towards self-sufficiency in face of US-China tensions will prioritize high technology capabilities. The clampdown on homegrown technology giants even as digitization gains prominence will significantly impede their global ambitions. Industry players worldwide will need to re-adjust their global strategies to account for these new realities as geopolitics takes a prominent seat in boardrooms. Debates around re-shoring, de-coupling and dependency will continue long after the pandemic abates. This panel discussion combined policy, sectoral and global perspectives to take stock of the predicament.

Bonnie Glaser, Alan Hao Yang, Sana Hashmi

Wednesday Seminar | Webex Webinar |25 August, 2021

As the Indo-Pacific construct evolves, it is important to look at how this set of relations and its future hold relevance for the like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region and what could these countries do to minimise the threat emanating from the rising tensions between China and Taiwan. Whether cross-strait relations improve in the future depends on policies adopted by the PRC, Taiwan and to some extent, the United States. Thus, delineating strategic currents in the Cross-straits relations requires an analysis of dynamics in the Indo-Pacific along with the development of Taiwan as a resilient stakeholder in the context of post-Covid 19 pandemic recovery. With Beijing unlikely to soften its demand that any leader of Taiwan recognizes that Taiwan is a part of China, cross-strait tensions will persist, and likely increase and China will step up actions to punish, coerce, and isolate Taiwan. In such a situation, democracies should make greater efforts unilaterally and multilaterally to support Taiwan, in part to strengthen deterrence. In this context, the speakers discussed the implications for the region and where India’s interests lie.