Vijay Gokhale

Book Discussion | Zoom Webinar |5 November 2021

In his recent book, The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India, the author, Shri Vijay Gokhale focuses on six case studies of India-China negotiations that span the entire period from 1949 to 2019 and draws certain conclusions about the methods that China adopts and tools that China uses in the negotiation process with India. The book is intended to introduce the topic to ordinary people who are interested in India-China relations and foreign policy issues. Shri Gokhale spoke about the broad factors that shaped China's approach to negotiations, the different approaches that India and China adopted during the negotiations and the manner in which the perceptions that each has about the other has shaped the approach to negotiations. This book discussion intended to simplify the understanding of Chinese negotiating strategy and tactics and gather a further understanding of the book from the author itself.

AICCS | Zoom Webinar | 11-13 November 2021

The All India Conference of China Studies (AICCS) is the flagship event of the ICS, convened annually, with the principal objective of spreading interest in and strengthening research on China and East Asian Studies in India. The 14th AICCS was held in collaboration with Cheena Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University and in partnership with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Each conference has a special theme, and this year's theme focused on "Society and Culture in China". The Keynote Address was delivered by Shivshankar Menon, Visiting Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University and Chairman, Advisory Board, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi.

Shyam Saran, Joseph Gerson, Da Wei, Zhiqun Zhu, Kanti Bajpai

Wednesday Seminar | Zoom Webinar |17 November 2021

In the US media, as also in the global press, leading headlines in the past few days have been “A US-China clash is not unthinkable”, “The US could stumble into a nuclear war with China over Taiwan” and “America would defend Taiwan against a Chinese assault.” On the other hand, the People’s Republic of China has not been far behind in spitting out war-like rhetoric. The headlines in the leading state-controlled media in China have been “Why US will lose a war with China over Taiwan island”, “U.S. is shutting door for talks, and not prepared for Consequence” and “Upping tensions over Taiwan shows US is an irresponsible power.” So, why has Taiwan become an explosive flashpoint for a US-China war? Arguably, Obama’s “pivot to Asia”, Trump’s “all-out anti-China policies,” and the current US administration’s “New Cold War against China” spearheaded by President Biden have all been driven by the historic decline of US hegemony. China, on its part, has not been shying away from a confrontationist US either. Not only has China steadily built up Chinese military bases in the South China Sea and has successfully tested both medium-range and intercontinental hypersonic missiles, it has also increased the frequency of flying sorties near the Taiwanese airspace. Moreover, China’s “stubborn” ignorance of external criticisms of clamping down on dissidents, putting over a million Uyghurs into “re-education camps” and crushing peaceful democracy protests in Hong Kong – haven’t won Beijing one additional supporter abroad. Furthermore, China has condemned the attitude of the US for its return to the “Cold War mindset”. The world’s appeal to a coercive Biden and an aggressive Xi Jinping is not going to help us avert the dangers of war. What we really need is to build a powerful world opinion to reduce the risk of a military conflict between the world’s largest and second-largest economies, both nuclear-armed. This seminar shed light on all these issues.

Ruediger Frank

Wednesday Seminar | Zoom Webinar |24 November 2021

The DPRK, or North Korea, has in the past two decades become a major issue of concern due to its geostrategic importance, its possession of nuclear weapons and the resulting direct and indirect threats for regional security, and due to humanitarian and human rights issues. As of 2021, the country is dealing with a long-term structural crisis of its inefficient state-socialist economy, the mid-term effects of economic sanctions that went from specific to comprehensive, and the short-term effects of the Covid-pandemic and related restrictions. Other state-socialist systems like those of China, Vietnam and the Soviet Union have responded to similar challenges by embarking on a path of reform, with different approaches and results. North Korea, despite having experimented with elements of a more liberal approach since the late 1990s, has so far not announced a deep and broad economic reform program. This talk addressed the question of how to increase the likelihood of a deep and broad economic reform drive in North Korea. Rather than doing so based on an ad-hoc interpretation of isolated events or randomly available data, it attempted to take a systematic approach. The CRE model helps to break down a very broad question into smaller, more precise tasks. Efforts directed at the elite and the middle class, and aimed at increasing perceived gains from reforms and losses from non-reforms, are the most promising measures. This shed a new light on various policies applied by the West including economic sanctions and summitry with the top leader, and helps explain the rationale behind current North Korean policies such as inward-orientation and fight against cultural infiltration.