When discussing the relationship between major powers, China's academic circles generally have two dimensions, namely, the relationship between China and major powers, and the relationship between major powers. In the list of great powers, there are usually only two categories, one is the superpower of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, and the other is the economic powers such as Germany, Britain, France and Japan. ?
In the late 20th century, the rapid development of China, India, Brazil and other countries became the focus of world attention. Many international strategic researchers believe that although the development levels of these three countries are not completely synchronized, their actual and potential impact on the world pattern will be enormous, so they call the development of these countries "rising", and China, Indian and Pakistani have become "emerging powers". ?
Twenty years ago, when China attracted the world's attention as a rapidly developing country, Cohen, an American expert on India, pointed out in his book that people still have different views on India: "The world's views on India are divided into two categories. The first kind of analysts think that India will (or has) become a "big country", and ... the other kind of analysts have completely different views. " [1] However, by the beginning of 2 1 century, the number of people who were skeptical about India's development had been greatly reduced, and more and more people not only regarded India as the leader of the IT industry, but also included it in the ranks of emerging powers as a whole. Cohen wrote in the name of "India is rising", pointing out that "India seems ready to occupy a place among the world's leading countries." India needs to act like a big country, and the United States needs to realize how much India has changed. [2] The National Intelligence Committee of the United States pointed out in a report in June 5438 +2005 10: "By 2020, China and India will become the competitors of the United States in the global economic hegemony." In addition, China and India also have the ambition of "playing an important role in the multipolar world order" [3]. China scholar Ma Jiali pointed out: "From the current situation, the rise of India is an indisputable fact, or at least an inevitable trend. "In addition, scholars and politicians from Japan, France, Germany and many Southeast Asian countries also fully affirmed the rapid development of India. Interestingly, Indian scholars began to have a positive evaluation of China's development almost at the same time, believing that India can get a lot of enlightenment from China's development practice.
Obviously, as China and India enter the ranks of great powers, the relations between the two countries will inevitably change accordingly and become an integral part of the relations between great powers. ?
Compared with the general relations between major powers, China-India relations have many consistent characteristics:
First of all, both China and India already have considerable comprehensive strength, and the exchange between the two countries is characterized by giant dialogue. According to the current popular view, resources, economy, science and technology, military strength and international influence all constitute a country's comprehensive strength. Although China and India are still among the developing countries, they both have the advantages of vast territory, huge resources and large population. In recent years, they have maintained a high economic growth rate, thus becoming the most dynamic and potential countries in the world today. Take several indicators that best reflect comprehensive national strength as examples: China ranks third in the world, and Indian ranks seventh; Population, China ranks first in the world and second in India; In 2003, China ranked sixth in the world and 11th in India. Military power, China and India are among the top in Asia in terms of the number of conventional weapons, technical equipment and military scale, and both have nuclear weapons; International influence, China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and India actively strives to become a permanent member; China and India are still leading in some fields of science and technology, and at the same time, they are constantly improving their overall level and striving to enter the ranks of powerful countries in science and technology. All these indicate that China and India have been rapidly changing their long-standing image of "big but weak".
Secondly, both countries regard each other as countries with great strategic interests, thus placing them in a big country position. From 65438 to 0998, Kunwa Singh, then Minister of State of India, believed that India-China relations were not a territorial border issue, but closely related to the handling of India's foreign policy. In the governing programs of major political parties in India, relations with China have also been placed in a prominent position [5]. This is exactly the same as China's attitude towards India. On many occasions, the head of government of China spoke highly of the importance of relations with India. In the joint statements issued during the exchange of visits between the heads of government of the two countries in 2003 and 2005, they also promoted this bilateral relationship to the height of strategic cooperation. ?
Thirdly, the influence of Sino-Indian relations is no longer a simple bilateral relationship, but has a certain impact on the surrounding areas and even the world. Some American scholars wrote: "Some observers believe that China and India can be partners against American hegemony." [6] Japanese scholars believe that with China and India becoming world economic powers in 2050, it will be difficult for Japan to avoid the trend of "small country", so "now Japan should change its thinking of only following the United States and establish a * * * relationship with the whole world including Asia" [7]. There is a strong message in the opinions of more researchers, that is, people are paying more and more attention to the influence of the relationship between China and India, two emerging countries, on the world pattern.