China’s ‘regionalism foreign policy’ and China-India relations in South Asia

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on relations between China and India in South Asia, the two major powers’ ‘shared neighborhood’. Assessing the objectives underlying Beijing's interest in engaging in regional groupings with India and other South Asian states, it finds that Beijing's pursuit of a ‘regionalism foreign policy’ reflects a ‘comprehensive’ approach to international security. China's regionalism foreign policy creates potential nexuses for regional cooperation between China and India. Against the backdrop of strategic insecurity between the two countries, however, Chinese policies, including a burgeoning paymaster role, galvanize New Delhi to buttress its traditional regional dominance. The discussion concludes that to avert worsening tensions with India and win Indian participation in its regional vision, Beijing must rethink its current approach, taking into account how New Delhi perceives its behaviour. The article suggests areas for further research concerning how regional institutions as forums for major power interaction might facilitate cooperation between rivals.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• India
• South Asia
• regionalism
• security
• paymaster

Acknowledgments

Significant improvements to this article resulted from extensive feedback from many sources, including incisive comments from the editors of this special issue and its anonymous reviewers, careful review of an early draft by my colleague Walter Andersen at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and thoughtful comments from SAIS doctoral candidate, Adam Lee. It could not have been completed without the excellent research support received from Christopher Gragg and Emily Calvert. The author wishes to express her thanks to all.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Carla P. Freeman (PhD) is Associate Research Professor and Associate Director of the China Studies programme at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Director of the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute. She writes on the linkages between China's foreign and domestic policy, with much of her work focused on nontraditional security. Prior to joining the SAIS faculty, she was a risk analyst and foundation programme officer. She has been a fellow of the US Institute of Peace, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Harvard University's Fairbank Center. She is a graduate of Yale University (BA) and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (PhD). Recent publications include edited volumes: Handbook of China and Developing Countries, (editor), (Edward Elgar Press, 2015; paperback edition, 2016; China and North Korea: Strategic and Policy Perspectives from a Changing China, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). She is the editor-in-chief of Asian Perspective and on the editorial board of The SAIS Review, for which she serves as the lead faculty advisor.

ORCID

Carla P. Freeman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6578-0552