South Asia in China's Foreign Relations

This article examines the key characteristics underlying China's policy and perceptions about South Asia and surveys China's relations with South Asian countries in the 1990s and beyond. Beijing's South Asia policy is tied to China's military security concerns vis-à-vis that of India and territorial disputes. Chinese leaders regularly visit Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to demonstrate a continuing determination to remain involved in South Asia and to reassure China's friends that improvement in Sino-Indian relations would not be at their cost. Beijing insists on the resolution of bilateral problems and disputes in accordance with the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and remains critical of India's coercive diplomacy to guard its security interests. Beijing's entente cordiale with Pakistan continues to flourish, underpinned by nuclear and missile co-operation. New Delhi continues to keep a close eye on the political and strategic relations between China and India's neighbours. Current strategic and economic trends indicate that South Asia's importance in China's national security calculus is likely to increase in the 21st century. A Sino-Indian rivalry in southern Asia and the northern Indian Ocean may well be a dominant feature of future Asian geopolitics.