Nirupama Rao and Lin Minwang on the great India-China face-off

Experts debate the deep fault lines in bilateral ties – from the long-running border dispute to trust and competing narratives

Lin Minwang is a professor and vice-dean at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University , and deputy director of the university’s Centre for South Asian Studies . His research focuses on international relations in South Asia, with particular emphasis on China-India relations and China’s foreign policy. He is the author of Choosing War and The Belt and Road Initiative and Geopolitics in South Asia .

Nirupama Rao is a former Indian foreign secretary (2009-11) and the first woman to serve as India’s ambassador to China (2006-09). She also served as ambassador to the United States and high commissioner to Sri Lanka. A career diplomat with more than four decades of experience, she is the author of The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet, China 1949-1962 .

Lin: Part of the reason is that the history of 1962 has become an important part of India’s national identity. Indian leaders, when explaining India’s history – or even discussing the mistakes made by Indian decision-makers at that time – have often had to describe China as an expansionist power. That is why I think it is very difficult to change this perception. Because if you want to change, you have to change all your narratives, which have been deep-rooted in the national identity narratives.

Now, we are also seeing more and more Chinese people develop negative perceptions of India. One reason is that it has become much easier for Chinese people to understand how the outside world views China. Especially after Covid-19, many Chinese internet users have found it easier to access information about how Indians perceive China.