Volume 5 • Issue 1 • 1000064 Arts Social Sci J ISSN: 2151-6200 ASSJ an open access journal Research Article Open Access Dar, Arts Social Sci J 2014, 5:1 DOI: 10.4172/2151-6200.1000064 Keywords: China; Dalai Lama; India; Tibet Introduction Te present relation between China and India has great uncertainty and ambiguity as both the countries have adopted diferent attitude of methodology and way of sorting the diferences to emerge as regional powers mainly due to the mutual suspicion and distrust rather due to the inheritance of issues. China and India, the two largest developing countries in the world, share a number of interests especially in the feld of domestic development, and economic reform. Tey are experiencing a period of rapid economic growth. However, both the states are also struggling to defne their role in the world given their new profound infuence on the global economy. Both promote the notion of a multi-polar world in which they may serve as bigger players alongside the United States. China’s strategic interests in India follows from its desire to maintain a peaceful international environment create friendly relations with all the states and especially with neighbors, prevent any attempt towards the formation of anti-China blocs and fnally develop new markets, investment opportunities and resources to stimulate its economic growth. It also wants to resolve its domestic problems in a coherent manner. To achieve all these objectives, it is necessary for China to have friendly relations with India, despite the inherited bilateral issues. On the other hand, India’s own focus on the internal development encourages it to cultivate positive relations with China. However, the attitude within India towards forging cordial relations with China remains mixed to some extent due to the historical legacy of China-India relations. While the lef parties such as the Communist party of India (Marxist) has always sought the friendly relations with China, but the right wing parties and some people within the security establishment view China as a major security threat 1 [1]. From this perspective, it would be pertinent here to state these areas in which both the sides compete with each other and which is a major source of distrust, suspicion and misunderstanding between them. Bilateral Issues between China and India Tere are factors within and outside between China and India which still impacts their relations, for instance, border and Tibet issues are more prominent and recently, the water issue has also surfaced in the bilateral relations between China and India. Tese bilateral issues will not only efect on their present relations but have a negative impact on their future relations as well; it will also afect the process of their rise and the peace and stability in and outside the region. 1 The Indian Express, 4 May 1998, George Fernandes has declared China as India's ``potential threat number one”. Border issue Te main problem between the two countries is the Border question, which is a historical one. Te Border issue is rooted in the disputed status of the McMahon Line, which defnes the border between India and Tibet. India recognizes this agreement as the basis for its territorial claim while China objected the validity of McMahon Line which was drawn in 1914 Simla convention because China believes that it was not a party to Simla Convention so it is not bound to accept the boundary demarcated by Simla convention 2 [2]. India claims 43,180 squares Kilometers of Jammu and Kashmir occupied by China including 5180 square kilometers cede to China by Pakistan under a 1963 China-Pakistan boundary Agreement. On the other hand China claims 90,000 square kilometers of territory held by India in Arunachal Pradesh 3 [3]. Tere has not been a remarkable progress in resolving the border dispute between the two sides due to the importance of Aksai Chin to China because it is the main link between Tibet and Xinjiang province of China and Arunachal Pradesh to India is crucial to stability in India’s north-eastern insurgent afected areas 4 . Afer the 1962 war, relationship between China and India remained hostile for several decades. India’s grant of statehood to Arunachal Pradesh in the late eighties (February 1987) which China claims as a part of South Tibet caused the hostility on the bilateral relations to such an extent that another border war seemed about to happen. China claimed the major territorial concessions in populated areas of Arunachal Pradesh particularly Twang because Chinese claim it to be central to Tibetan Buddhism given that the sixth Dalai Lama was born there 5 [4]. In the same way, as China seeks return of Arunachal Pradesh on religious grounds, India demands the return of the sacred Mount Kailash Manasrovar in Tibet, since it is a sacred 2 Bhawan Pokharna, India-China Relations (Dimensions and Perspectives), New Century Publications, New Delhi, p. 122. 3 Derk J. Hitchell and Chietigi Bajpaee, China and India, p. 157 4 Derek j. Mitcgell and Chietigi Bajpaee, India and China, 5 Mohan Malik, India-China Competition Revealed on Ongoing Border Disputes, Power and Interest New Report(PINR), 2007 *Corresponding author: Bashir Ahmad Dar, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar - 190006 Jammu and Kashmir India, Tel: +91 9796723705; E-mail: showkat80ahmad@gmail.com Received November 04, 2013; Accepted December 26, 2013; Published January 07, 2014 Citation: Dar BA (2014) Major Bilateral Issues between China and India. Arts Social Sci J 5: 064. doi: 10.4172/2151-6200.1000064 Copyright: © 2014 Dar BA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Major Bilateral Issues between China and India Bashir Ahmad Dar* Ph.D Scholar, Department of Political Science, University of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India Abstract The paper focuses on the bilateral issues which hurdles the relations among the two states and looks for the mutual understanding in the important issues for the peaceful rise of the two Asian giants. For instance, there is a divergence of interests between the two like the border disputes, water disputes etc. Here an attempt has been made to illuminate whether China’s and India’s paths lead them to interact as rivals or partners. Arts and Social Sciences Journal A r t s a n d S o c i a l Sc i e n c e s J o u r n a l ISSN: 2151-6200