Chinese-Indian Rivalry in Indochina

Chinese-Indian hostility is a complex amalgam of conflicting perceptions and interests. Since the early 1960s each country has seen the other as posing a military threat along geographically isolated, ethnically sensitive, and disputed boundaries. Each has seen the other as cooperating with other hostile powers to encircle and pressure it. Pakistan has been China's main anti-Indian partner, but until the late 1970s Beijing encouraged whatever anti-Indian tendencies it found in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and even Bhutan. To counter Beijing's effort, New Delhi turned to the Soviet Union and other powers hostile to China. By the late 1970s Vietnam was among these anti-Chinese powers. Over the past several years contradictory Indian and Chinese policies toward Vietnam and Kampuchea have emerged as a significant element of the relationship between the two countries. While Beijing has invested considerable effort in forcing Hanoi to come to terms, New Delhi's friendly relationship with Hanoi has become one of India's most important extra-South Asian ties. While Sino-Indian rivalry in Indochina ranks below other issues as a cause of friction, it has become an important complicating factor.