Speaking Of Asia Podcast: Why India and China cannot get along

The Straits Times' associate editor Ravi Velloor chats with Professor Kanti Bajpai, who is the Wilmar Chair on Asian Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. Prof Bajpai recently wrote a book, titled India Versus China: Why They Are Not friends. ST PHOTO: ERNEST LUIS

Soldiers from India's border security force standing guard at a checkpoint along a highway leading to Ladakh in the Himalayas. PHOTO: REUTERS

Ravi Velloor

Associate Editor

Updated

Published

Aug 13, 2021, 06:00 PM

Speaking Of Asia Ep 4: Why India and China cannot get along

54:34 mins

Synopsis: The Straits Times' associate editor Ravi Velloor distils his experience from four decades of covering the Asian continent.

In this fourth episode, he discusses the subject of China and India, and their fraught relationship, with Professor Kanti Bajpai, who is the Wilmar Chair on Asian Studies at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. Prof Bajpai has recently written a book called India Versus China: Why They Are not friends.

They discuss the following points:

1. How worrying are the clashes between India and China? (2:47)

2. China & India 4 Ps: Perceptions, Perimeters, Partnerships and Power (5:53)

3. Physical factors that limit the impact of China's military superiority (13:05)

4. Increasing number of border confrontations from 2006 onwards, and why troubles in Tibet are so sensitive (17:12)

5. Do close cultural contacts between the two countries over the centuries matter? (26:40)

6. How India moving closer to the United States is impacting its relationship with China (38:35)

7. Reactions to Prof Bajpai's book, especially in India (45:10)

8. Asian neighbours - including Singapore - do not have polarised views towards China but what political and economic considerations need to be balanced? (48:30)

Produced by: Ravi Velloor (velloor@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis and Fa'izah Sani

Edited by: Hadyu Rahim

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