This new and revised, second edition of the Routledge Handbook of China–India Relations provides a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, and much-needed overview of relations between the two nations since 2020, marked by the Galwan Valley clash and ongoing border tensions.

Arguing for sustained leadership and a nuanced, scholarly understanding of both societies in order to foster stability and cooperation amid persistent rivalry, the book explores the bilateral relationship’s scale, historical depth, and strategic complexity, emphasizing its global significance. Reflecting the consequential and multifaceted nature of the bilateral relationship, the book brings together twenty-seven original contributions by a wide range of experts in the field. The chapters demonstrate that China–India relations are more far-reaching and complicated than ever before, marked by both conflict and cooperation. Following a thorough introduction by the Editors, the handbook is divided into seven parts, which combine thematic and chronological principles into the following categories: historical overviews; strategic culture; core bilateral conflicts; military relations; economy and development; relations with third parties; and China, India, and global order. The chapters offer comparative analyses that highlight convergences and divergences in governance, strategic culture, and global order conceptions.

This handbook will be an essential reference work for scholars interested in International Relations, Asian Politics, Global Politics, and China–India relations.

List of figures

List of tables

Contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Taking stock—a multi-disciplinary view of China–India relations

Kanti Bajpai, Selina Ho, and Manjari Chatterjee Miller

1 Reflections on comparing China and India

Tarun Khanna

PART I

Historical overviews

2. China and India pre-1939

Rudolf G. Wagner

3. Relations between the Republic of China and India, 1937–1949

Tansen Sen

PART II

Culture and strategic culture: Constructing the other

4. Shooting the messengers: The downward slide in China-–India media relations, 2008–2024

Ananth Krishnan

5. China in India’s strategic thought

Ian Hall

6. India in China’s strategic thought

Zhang Feng

PART III

Core bilateral conflicts

7. Stability in a secondary strategic direction: China and the border dispute with India from 1962 to 2020

M. Taylor Fravel

8. Solving a solved problem: The Tibet issue in China–India relations

Fang Tien-sze

9. China–India river-water conflicts: Toward a solution through launching a cooperation spiral revisited

Sebastian Biba

PART IV

Military relations

10. Multiple complexities: India’s China strategy before and after Galwan

Yogesh Joshi and Anit Mukherjee

11. Asymmetric but uneven: The China–India conventional military balance

Oriana Skylar Mastro and Arzan Tarapore

12. China–India and maritime security: A contest for power and influence in the Indian Ocean

David Brewster

13. China and India: Two models for AI military acquisition and integration revisited

Lora Saalman

PART V

Economy and development

14. Competitive convergence: China and India in the new global era

Ye Min

15. Contested partnership: China and India in the evolving BRICS landscape

Gu Jing

16. India’s response to the Belt and Road Initiative

Li Li

PART VI

Relations with third parties

17. American assessments of India and China post-Galwan

Zack Cooper

18. Assessing Russia’s salience in India–China relations

Vidya Nadkarni

19. India, China, and Pakistan: Southern Asia’s changing strategic triangle

Christopher Clary

20. Not a substitute for China?: Japan’s perspective of India as a prospective partner in Asia

Izuyama Marie

21. Across the Himalayas: China in India’s neighborhood

Constantino Xavier

22. A China–India–Myanmar triangle?

Sun Yun

23. Rivals at sea: India’s rise against China in the South China Sea and East China Sea

Ji Yeon-jung

24. China and India in the Middle East: The rivalry moves west?

Nicolas Blarel

25. China’s and India’s engagement with Africa: Pursuing national interests

Wu Fuzuo

PART VII

China, India, and the global order

26. China, India, and global security: Deploying to UN peacekeeping operations and shaping the responsibility to protect

Courtney J. Fung

27. China, India, and global health governance

Huang Yanzhong and Jin Jiyong

Index

Index