China–India Relations
As ancient civilizations, China and India coexisted in peace and harmony for millennia. However, as postcolonial modern nation-states, with the exception of a very short period of bonhomie in the early 1950s, relations between the two Asian giants have been marked by conflict, containment, mutual suspicion, distrust, and rivalry. Just as the Indian subcontinental plate has a tendency to constantly rub and push against the Eurasian tectonic plate, causing friction and volatility in the entire Himalayan mountain range, India's bilateral relationship with China also remains volatile and friction- and tension-ridden.
Past Perfect: Ancient Civilizations
China and India are two of the world's oldest civilizations, each with the quality of resilience that has enabled it to survive and prosper through the ages and against the odds. During the past three thousand years, every one of the Asian countries—some situated on the continental landmass, others being islands off the Asia mainland—has at some stage been directly influenced by one or both of these two great civilizations.
Both have long, rich strategic traditions: Kautilya's Arthashastra—a treatise on war, diplomacy, statecraft and empire—in India and Sunzi's (Sun Tzu's) fourth-century BCE treatise, Sunzi bingfa (The Art of War) in China were written over two thousand years ago.
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