On November 22, 2022, Beijing time, the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) of Tsinghua University and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) co-hosted the second session of the Webinar on South Asia, which looked at the current and future China-India relations and its impact on South Asia, and explored the Indo-Pacific strategy amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Liu Zongyi, research fellow at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, was invited by CISS to participate in Session 1 “China-India Relations and Regional Implications” moderated by Antoine Levesques, IISS research fellow for South Asia. The session also featured James Crabtree, executive director of IISS-Asia. Liu Zongyi pointed out the significant divergences between China and India on how to improve their ties despite willingness to do so on both sides, which has led the bilateral political relations to an impasse. He also analyzed the current situation and challenges in terms of military, trade, and people-to-people exchanges, and believes that the China-India relationship is a competitive symbiosis in which India should first turn away from its hostility toward China if it wants to improve the bilateral ties.

Session 2 “The Indo-Pacific Strategy in the Shadow of the War in Ukraine,” moderated by IISS Associate Fellow Desmond Bowen, featured CISS Senior Fellow Zhou Bo and IISS Senior Fellow Nick Childs. The overall China-India relationship means more than and should not be subject to the border issue; otherwise it will once again leave no way out for either sides, said Zhou. India should put itself in the right frame of mind to acknowledge China’s legitimate economic and military presence in the Indian Ocean, and not take itself as number one in South Asia, not to mention suppressing other countries in the region from fostering normal bilateral relations with China. He pointed out that the war in Ukraine will accelerate the shift of the world’s geopolitical center to Asia: China, India and ASEAN will play a bigger role in the rising Asian Century, which requires China and India to think carefully about their relations with each other in the big picture.