Table Of ContentChina in India’s Post-Cold War
Engagement with Southeast Asia
This book examines the role of China in driving and sustaining India’s post-
Cold War engagement with Southeast Asia. In doing so, it provides a unique
insight into the regional dimensions of the Sino-Indian relationship.
India launched its Look East Policy in the early 1990s as part of a con-
certed effort to revive the importance of Southeast Asia in the country’s
foreign policy agenda. This study assesses the role of the China factor –
defined here as China’s regional role, which has been interpreted through
the prism of the Sino-Indian relationship – in the inception and evolution
of the policy. More specifically, it establishes the extent to which China
has been raised as a priority in discourses of India’s Look East Policy and
how this has varied over time from the origins of the policy through to the
most recent phase of the renamed Act East Policy. Addressing the distinc-
tion between what policymakers signal in their official statements and their
true or underlying motivations, the book alludes to the fact that govern-
ment officials may not always reflect true intentions in their official state-
ments, and it is often what is not said that may reveal more about their real
motivations. This is particularly relevant in the context of the Sino-Indian
relationship where diplomatic rhetoric often masks more competitive and
confrontational aspects of the bilateral relationship.
An important analysis of the interplay between India’s relations with
Southeast Asia and China, this book will be of interest to academics, poli-
cymakers and students in the fields of International Relations, Asian Secu-
rity, Southeast Asian politics, and in particular, Indian foreign policy, the
Sino-Indian relationship, and India’s Look East/Act East Policy.
Chietigj Bajpaee received a joint PhD degree from King’s College London,
UK and the National University of Singapore. He has worked with several
public policy think tanks and risk consultancies in the USA, Europe, and
Asia, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, Control Risks and IHS Markit,
and has held visiting fellowships at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for
Defence Studies and Analyses and Vivekananda International Foundation.
Routledge Studies on Think Asia
Edited by Jagannath P. Panda, Institute for Defence Studies
and Analyses, India
This series addresses the current strategic complexities of Asia and forecasts
how these current complexities will shape Asia’s future. Bringing together
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ries, borders, bordering provinces) that are crucial to Asia’s future.
11. Asian Geopolitics and the US-China Rivalry
Edited by Felix Heiduk
12. ASEAN and India-ASEAN Relations
Navigating Shifting Geopolitics
Edited by M. Mayilvaganan
13. Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific
The Changing Profile of International Relations
Edited by Ernest Gunasekara-Rockwell and Jagannath P. Panda
14. Indo-Pacific Strategies
Navigating Geopolitics at the Dawn of a New Age
Edited by Brendon J. Cannon and Kei Hakata
15. China in India’s Post-Cold War Engagement with Southeast Asia
Chietigj Bajpaee
URL: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-on-Think-Asia/book-
series/TA
China in India’s Post-Cold War
Engagement with
Southeast Asia
Chietigj Bajpaee
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Chietigj Bajpaee
The right of Chietigj Bajpaee to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bajpaee, Chietigj, author.
Title: China in India’s post-cold war engagement with Southeast Asia /
[Chietigj Bajpaee].
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2022. | Series:
Routledge studies on think Asia; 15 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021042616 (print) | LCCN 2021042617 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367464066 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032198835 (paperback) | ISBN
9780367480066 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: India--Foreign relations--China. | China--Foreign
relations--India. | India--Foreign relations--Southeast Asia. |
Southeast Asia--Foreign relations--India. | China--Foreign
relations--Southeast Asia. | Southeast Asia--Foreign relations--China.
Classification: LCC DS450.C6 B34 2022 (print) | LCC DS450.C6 (ebook) |
DDC 327.54051--dc23/eng/20211012
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042616
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042617
ISBN: 978-0-367-46406-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-19883-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-48006-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780367480066
Typeset in Baskerville
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
Contents
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Preface x
1 Introduction 1
1 The ‘Look East’ Policy 1
2 The ‘China factor’ 3
3 Objectives of this study 3
4 Regional (and global) dimensions of the Sino-Indian relationship 4
5 Theoretical approach 7
6 Methodology 7
a Agency 7
b Structure 9
7 Book structure 11
2 Deconstructing India’s ‘Look East’ Policy 17
1 Historical context 18
a Launching ‘Look East’ 18
b Functional cooperation in India’s post-Cold War engagement
with Southeast Asia 20
c India’s ‘Soft Power’ influence 29
2 ‘Phases’ in the ‘Look East’ policy 32
a Phase one (–2004) to phase two (–2014) 36
b Phase three – ‘Act East’ (2014–) 38
c Justifying the ‘phase’ typology 40
3 Is the ‘Look East’ Policy real? 43
a Challenges to ‘Looking East’ 43
b Vindicating ‘Look East’ 48
4 Conclusions 50
vi Contents
3 Interplay between agency and structure 60
1 Agency 61
a ‘Strategic elites’ as agents of Indian foreign policy 61
b ‘Strategic culture’ as the source of strategic elite world-views 63
2 Structure 68
a Defining a ‘region’ 68
b Defining Asia 69
c Defining India’s place in Asia 69
d Defining a regional security complex 71
e Defining the Asian ‘super-complex’ 72
f Defining the Indo-Pacific region 74
3 Conclusions 76
4 Launching ‘Look East’ (until 1996) 84
1 Context 85
a Sino-Indian relationship 85
b China-Southeast Asia relations 87
2 Discourses 88
a Engaging China 89
b Emulating China 93
c Balancing China 94
3 Conclusions 105
5 ‘Look East’ – phase 1 (until 2004) 112
1 Context 113
a Sino-Indian relationship 113
b China–Southeast Asia relations 115
2 Discourses 116
a Engaging China 116
b Emulating China 121
c Balancing China 127
3 Conclusions 134
6 ‘Look East’ – phase 2 (until 2014) 141
1 Context 143
a Sino-Indian relationship 143
b China–Southeast Asia relations 147
2 Discourses 150
a Engaging China 151
b Emulating China 158
c Balancing China 163
3 Conclusions 177
Contents vii
7 ‘Act East’ – phase 3 (2014 onwards) 188
1 Context 189
a Sino-Indian relationship 189
b China-Southeast Asia relations 192
2 Discourses 194
a Engaging China 195
b Emulating China 202
c Balancing China 206
3 Conclusions 218
8 Conclusions 227
1 Plurality of narratives on the ‘China factor’ 230
2 Intervening variables 235
a Expanding geographic scope – Southeast Asia to East Asia to
Indo-Pacific 235
b Maritime dimensions of the Sino-Indian relationship 236
c Role of third parties – United States, Japan 236
3 Rhetoric vs. substance of the ‘Look East’ Policy 237
4 Where does the ‘Act East’ Policy go from here? 240
Bibliography 244
1 Primary Sources 244
a Unpublished 244
i Private Correspondence (Interviews) 244
b Published (Official documents) 246
i Reports 246
ii Statements 247
iii Speeches 248
iv Parliamentary Questions 256
2 Secondary Sources 258
a Books, Monographs and Research Papers 258
b Newspaper Articles 281
c Databases 290
Index 292
List of illustrations
Figures
1.1 Southeast Asia at the intersection of India and China’s
Historical Spheres of Influence 5
2.1 India-ASEAN trade (1996–2019) 41
2.2 Concentric Circles in Asia’s regional architecture 46
2.3 Trade with ASEAN: India vs. China/Japan/South Korea 47
2.4 India’s trade with Indo-Pacific region (1996–2019) 49
2.5 India’s trade with its ‘extended neighbourhood’
(1996-2019) 50
3.1 Asian super-complex comprising East and South
Asian regional security complexes 73
Tables
1.1 Narratives of China in the context of India’s ‘Look East’ Policy 13
2.1 Phases of India’s ‘Look East’ Policy 33
4.1 ‘China factor’ during launch of ‘Look East’ Policy
(until 1996) 107
5.1 ‘China factor’ during phase 1 of ‘Look East’ Policy
(until 2004) 136
6.1 ‘China factor’ during phase 2 of ‘Look East’ Policy
(until 2014) 178
7.1 ‘China factor’ during phase 3 of ‘Act East’ Policy
(2014 onwards) 219
8.1 ‘China factor’ over the course of ‘Look East’/‘Act East’ Policy 231
Acknowledgements
To say that this project has been an uphill battle would be an understate-
ment. As anyone who has pursued a doctorate as a mid-career professional
can verify, life often gets in the way (or is it the other way round that the
PhD gets in the way of a normal life!). This whole endeavour has been a
stop-start process, which has been interspersed with several important life
events.
I would like to thank my parents (Rajaish and Vandana Bajpaee), wife
(Neha) and brother (Akshay) for their unwavering support throughout this
long and sometimes arduous process. I dedicate this book to my daughter
Aadya, who has given me a new lease on life.
My supervisors (Alessio Patalano at King’s College London and Chong
Ja Ian at the National University of Singapore) have been pivotal in guid-
ing me throughout the PhD process. I would also like to thank the Joint
King’s College London–National University of Singapore PhD studentship
for helping to fund my doctoral studies and the Manohar Parrikar Institute
for Defence Studies and Analyses for a Visiting Fellowship that facilitated
my research in India.
In loving memory of my grandparents, uncle and sister. You have been
my inspiration:
Swarup Narain Bajpai
Vidya Devi Shukla
Sushila Bajpai
Swaraj Kumar Shukla
Suresh Chander Parasher
Ram Chandra Shukla
Brij Raj Saran Cowshish
Ranjana Shukla
