EVENTS

Abstract

Exclusively based on Chinese language sources,my paper looks into the Chinese discourse on 'Indo-Pacific' and tracks down, what can be called, a likely Chinese counter-strategy to cope with this new geo-political construct. Contrary to the general perception that China outrightly dismisses the idea of ‘Indo-Pacific’, for being an extension of the United States' ‘Containment of China’ policy, my paper highlights that the Chinese strategic circle not only acknowledges the sanctity of the idea of ‘Indo-Pacific’ but is rather keen to delineate its contours as per its own terms. Also, interestingly it is neither the military nor the economic prospect of the construct that happens to perturb the Chinese side; rather they are more concerned about the ideological underpinnings of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ that particularly singles out China from the US, Japan, India and other countries in the region. Other than this, the Chinese literature on ‘Indo-Pacific’ also gives much prominence to India's evolving role in the region and provides important cues about the future course of China-India relationship.

About the Speaker 

Antara Ghosal Singh is presently working as a Research Associate at the Delhi Policy Group (DPG).She is an alumna of Tsinghua University and Beijing Language and Culture University, China and National Central University, Taiwan. Her area of research is Chinese foreign policy, Chinese politics, China’s domestic developments and China-India relations. She has a list of publications in both national and international journals and websites. She also curates a monthly publication, DPG China Monitor, which features the dominant Chinese narrative on important developments both within and outside China exclusively from Chinese language sources.Before joining academic research, She has worked as a journalist for about 4 years with some of the leading national dailies like the Times of India and the Deccan Chronicle Group.