Author: Qian Zhang

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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"The Sino-Indian Border War of 1962 left a permanent scar on the relationship between the two largest Asian countries. In India, the “1962 War” is often referred to with terms such as “betrayal” and “humiliation,” but in China, it always remembered as the “Sino-Indian Border War of Self-defensive Counter-attack.” This difference suggests that what led China and India into war in 1962 continued to divide them in terms of how to understand this conflict. Among all scholarly attempts to explain the rise and significance of this war, Neville Maxwell’s 1970 book India’s China War is considered one of the most authoritative works, which heavily influenced Chinese discourse on this topic. He attributes the outbreak of the war mostly to factors from the Indian side, particularly Nehru’s character and his border policy, arguing that India provoked the war. This thesis, however, finds Maxwell’s interpretation is one of the most misleading assessments about this conflict. By examining India’s approach to China between 1945 and 1963, with a focus on Nehru’s thinking and activities, as well as Communist China’s approach to India between 1949 and 1963, this dissertation concludes that the war in 1962 was not so much India’s China War than China’s India War. It demonstrates that the vicissitudes of the Sino-Indian relationship since its establishment in 1950 were mainly subject to the Tibet Question, a prolonged disagreement over the rightful status of Tibet vis-à-vis China. The Indian society as a whole saw Tibet a country separate from China, with the latter possessing at most “suzerainty” over Tibet. The Chinese side, however, insisted on Tibet being part of China and on the concept of Chinese “sovereignty” in Tibet. This structural conflict first surfaced in 1950, when Communist China invaded Tibet, and was lurking in the background during the mid-1950s, a period of unprecedented Sino-Indian cooperation and friendship, but re-surfaced in 1959, when the Tibetan Uprising forced India and China to confront this problem again. The Sino-Indian border dispute, which became increasingly irreconcilable toward 1962, was largely the symptom of this stubborn issue. Indeed, the ideological difference between India and China, especially after the latter’s radicalization toward the end of 1950s, was yet another factor in paving the road to the border war"--

Download or read book China's India War written by Qian Zhang and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Sino-Indian Border War of 1962 left a permanent scar on the relationship between the two largest Asian countries. In India, the “1962 War” is often referred to with terms such as “betrayal” and “humiliation,” but in China, it always remembered as the “Sino-Indian Border War of Self-defensive Counter-attack.” This difference suggests that what led China and India into war in 1962 continued to divide them in terms of how to understand this conflict. Among all scholarly attempts to explain the rise and significance of this war, Neville Maxwell’s 1970 book India’s China War is considered one of the most authoritative works, which heavily influenced Chinese discourse on this topic. He attributes the outbreak of the war mostly to factors from the Indian side, particularly Nehru’s character and his border policy, arguing that India provoked the war. This thesis, however, finds Maxwell’s interpretation is one of the most misleading assessments about this conflict. By examining India’s approach to China between 1945 and 1963, with a focus on Nehru’s thinking and activities, as well as Communist China’s approach to India between 1949 and 1963, this dissertation concludes that the war in 1962 was not so much India’s China War than China’s India War. It demonstrates that the vicissitudes of the Sino-Indian relationship since its establishment in 1950 were mainly subject to the Tibet Question, a prolonged disagreement over the rightful status of Tibet vis-à-vis China. The Indian society as a whole saw Tibet a country separate from China, with the latter possessing at most “suzerainty” over Tibet. The Chinese side, however, insisted on Tibet being part of China and on the concept of Chinese “sovereignty” in Tibet. This structural conflict first surfaced in 1950, when Communist China invaded Tibet, and was lurking in the background during the mid-1950s, a period of unprecedented Sino-Indian cooperation and friendship, but re-surfaced in 1959, when the Tibetan Uprising forced India and China to confront this problem again. The Sino-Indian border dispute, which became increasingly irreconcilable toward 1962, was largely the symptom of this stubborn issue. Indeed, the ideological difference between India and China, especially after the latter’s radicalization toward the end of 1950s, was yet another factor in paving the road to the border war"--