China's India Studies

Over the past 50 years, with the improvement of relationship between India and China, the scope of India studies in China's IR research has been broadened and the new areas of studies are being explored. The research agenda of India studies has already extended to the areas like economy, society, culture, security, national strategy and their impact on both bilateral and international relations. In this situation, the focuses of India studies in China's IR research can be mainly identified as follows: reviews on India's social, political and economic systems; analysis on the national strategy and foreign policy; Sino-Indian relations; India's relations with some international organizations. However, even though many fresh progresses have been made in India studies, the India studies in China's IR research still lag far behind the study of other important countries like the U.S., UK, Russia and Japan, and more problems and challenges will face in the coming future. The paper believes that a fuller understanding of India probably will not make China and India close friends, but it definitely will help to prevent them from becoming fierce enemies.