Main problems, opportunities and Countermeasures of China India cooperation from the perspective of Geopolitics

. Based on the development and changes of Sino-Indian relations since the 21st century, this paper analyzes the geopolitical problems faced by Sino-Indian cooperation from the perspectives of conflict of strategic interests in the Indian Ocean, issues left over from history, and interference from third-party countries. The development opportunities faced by China-India cooperation are analyzed from three aspects: infrastructure investment, India's social and economic structural transformation, and China's new strategic layout, and prospects for cooperation between China and India in the post-epidemic period are prospected.


Introduction
After the outbreak of COVID-19, the global political and economic landscape has undergone profound changes over the century.China and India are not only the largest developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, but also strong economic powers that play an important role in promoting the development of the world economy.The exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have a long history.However, as China's comprehensive national strength increases by time, China gains stronger power and voice in international affairs.Meanwhile, India also shows a lot of concerns about China's revival, and has launched a series of cooperation with the United States in the Indo-Pacific region.Strategic and defense cooperation has also aroused China's doubts.In addition, the inherent border and territorial disputes have not been properly resolved, and the geopolitical conflict between China and India has been intensified.Under the current international environment, cooperation between China and India faces risks and challenges, as well as opportunities.China and India need to avoid risks to the greatest extent, seize opportunities, expand mutual benefits, benefit the people of both sides, and make greater contributions to the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific region and the development of the international community in the postpandemic era.

International relations between India and China
In the May 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modi led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to over 50% of the seats and became the new Prime Minister of India.Since the Modi government took over in 2014, relations between India and China have shown a general trend of "up then down".
In the same year that Modi was elected, a Chinese diplomatic mission paid an official visit to India, and the following year Prime Minister Modi led a delegation to China.Indian President Mukherjee paid a four-day state visit to China in May 2016, and Prime Minister Modi attended the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China in September.The Chinese leader travelled to Goa, India in October 2016 to attend the 8th meeting of BRICS leaders.In addition to this, the leaders of India and China have met on a number of occasions at different levels, adding strong momentum to the steady development of bilateral relations between India and China.However, as the willingness of the developed West, mainly represented by the US, to contain China intensifies, India has become an important strategic option for the West because of its geopolitical value.The "Indo-Pacific" strategy proposed by the US in 2017 has prompted India to consider China as its main strategic competitor.Under the Modi government, the number and severity of Sino-Indian border conflicts have become more frequent.Relations between India and China were once at an impasse due to the "Donglang incident" in June 2017 and the "Garhwan Valley conflict" in June 2020.Although China and India have repeatedly stressed that they should remain calm and restrained on the border issue and take the Agreement on the Political Guidelines for the Resolution of the Border Issue as the fundamental basis for resolving the dispute, the fact that India has repeatedly provoked China and violated China's legitimate rights on the border has led to a steady decline in Sino-Indian relations.Despite the significant differences on the Sino-Indian border issue, China and India signed 45 documents (24 of which were government-to-government and the rest were on commerce and trade) during Prime Minister Modi's visit to China in 2015.[1] It is clear that despite the differences, peace and cooperation are the main themes between India and China.

The main issues facing the current
China-India cooperation under the geopolitical perspective

Disputed Issues in China-India Border Areas
The territorial dispute over the border is a major cause of serious constraint on the good development of relations between India and China, and the frequent incidents of border conflicts in recent years have significantly increased the degree of influence of the issue in the bilateral relations between India and China.From a geopolitical perspective, India's assertive stance on the Sino-Indian border issue is rooted in strategic fears over China's rise and growing influence in South Asia, and therefore attempts to provoke disputes on the border between the two countries to curb China's development.
the Sino-Indian "tent standoff" in April 2013 and the June 2017, the India-China "tent standoff" in April 2013 and the "Donglang standoff" in June 2017 are representative examples of the contradictory border disputes between India and China.And in 2020 the two sides even broke out in the Garhwan Valley in a number of fights that escalated into dozens of deaths by June 2020.Since the 1980s, there have been more than 20 talks and meetings between the two countries on the border issue, but there are still significant differences on key issues such as the history and origin of the dispute, the size of the disputed territories, and the location of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).[2] As a result, China and India have yet to reach a consensus on a solution in the border negotiations and have not substantially resolved the issue.This is because the border issue involves national sovereignty and territorial security, and it is difficult for both China and India to make concessions on this issue easily.The resolution of the border issue still has a long way to go, and future battles between the two sides around this issue will remain inevitable. [3]

Conflicting attitudes between India and China on the Tibetan issue
India and China have conflicting positions and attitudes on issues related to Tibet.Tibet has been an important part of China's territory since ancient times.The issue of Tibet is a major issue that concerns the fundamental interests of our people and the sovereign integrity of the country.Its historical roots lie in the aggressive colonisation and interference in China's internal affairs by the British imperialists in the modern era.India's attitude towards Tibet has always been wavering and ambiguous.On the surface, India maintains normal diplomatic ties with China and regards Tibet as part of China's territory, while behind the scenes, it provides support to Tibetan separatist forces at various levels through various means, endangering the security and stability of China's borders.In fact, India has been adopting different strategic considerations according to the needs of the domestic and international situation, the essence of which is to seize more illegal power and interests and to make Tibet a "buffer zone" in the geopolitical contest between China and India.Moreover, as the Tibetan factor is closely related to the creation and resolution of the Sino-Indian border dispute, India is trying to use Tibet to contain China and gain more leverage on the Sino-Indian border issue.There is no doubt that in the process of Sino-Indian cooperation, disagreements over Tibet will undermine the strategic mutual trust between China and India and increase the vulnerability of Sino-Indian cooperation, thus to a certain extent hindering close cooperation between China and India.[4]

New opportunities for China-India cooperation
At the end of 2019, India's Finance Minister Sitharaman made it clear at an international business summit in Mumbai that India would be embarking on a five-year plan intended to boost the country's infrastructure, whereby India would be investing around Rs 100 trillion (approximately US$1.39 trillion) over the next five years to realise a range of major infrastructure projects one after another.India is at a critical juncture of economic growth and change, but its infrastructure in the areas of public transport, power and communications infrastructure is inadequate, and infrastructure development and manufacturing are weak, which will directly constrain India's participation in the wave of regional trade integration and economic globalisation.If the Belt and Road Initiative can be effectively implemented in India, it will largely change the situation of India's relatively backward infrastructure.[5] At the same time, Chinese companies could also benefit from contracting Indian projects and boost the demand for domestic equipment, which in turn would boost domestic production.Therefore, there is not only a solid basis for cooperation between China and India in the field of infrastructure development, but also a great potential for growth.In addition, in terms of international financing, more investment institutions around the world have begun to actively participate in financing India, complementing the financial shortcomings of India's development and providing investment assistance to India in various aspects such as the construction of medical and health facilities, road traffic construction and agriculture, effectively easing the pressure of running funds for India's domestic infrastructure construction; in terms of high technology, China is in the In the process of cooperation, China can provide India with advanced technical equipment and professional personnel support, and carry out cooperation in the field of high technology.It can be seen that cooperation between China and India in the field of major infrastructure will not only provide new financing opportunities for Chinese enterprises, but also well meet the Indian government's intrinsic requirements for economic system reform, creating greater room for development for mutually beneficial bilateral collaboration between China and India.

Optimising the mechanism for dealing with border issues
The Sino-Indian border dispute is one of the major factors that have long hindered the friendship and cooperation between China and India, so it is particularly important to establish a long-term mechanism for dealing with the border dispute between China and India.As the two countries with the largest populations in the world, China and India have incomparably broad prospects for cooperation, and maintaining peace and stability in the border area is in the interests of both China and the Chinese people, as well as India and the Indian people.Both China and India should adhere to the basic principle of not resolving border disputes by force, adhere to the basic outcomes of the current negotiations between the two sides, and form a long-term mechanism for dealing with border disputes through dialogue and consultation.[6]To the greatest extent possible, they should maintain rationality and restraint, respect and understand each other, properly handle disputes and differences, further improve border-related mechanisms and communication channels, and strive to reach an early solution to the border dispute that is in line with historical logic and fairness and justice, thereby safeguarding peace and stability in the border areas of the two countries and paving the way for further in-depth cooperation between the two countries.

Seeking strategic dovetailing
On 14 May 2015, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to China, General Secretary Xi Jinping frankly expressed his hope that China's "Belt and Road" initiative and the Asian Investment Bank (ADB) and other related projects could be implemented in conjunction with the Indian government's The "Act East" initiative proposed by the Indian government will be dovetailed at the strategic level.At the beginning of 2019, India's Minister of State for External Affairs Singh, in a speech to Parliament, publicly stated that the current global situation was becoming increasingly unstable.The bilateral relationship between India and China is an extremely important stabilising factor, and China and India will not allow their differences to intensify and thus gradually evolve into irreconcilable conflicts.To a certain extent, China's dream and India's dream have a high degree of overlap in some areas.[7] If China can precisely dovetail with India's own development plans, it will be easier to meet its investment needs and mutual interests through its own advantages, so as to find new economic cooperation ties, and thus achieve a new situation of mutual trust, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation between the two countries, which is also the key to promoting cooperation between China and India.This is the key to promoting cooperation between India and China.[8]

Conclusion
China and India are each other's geopolitically important neighbours, and their unique geographical location and unchangeable neighbourly relations have opened up new opportunities for cooperation between China and India on the one hand, but have also given rise to a number of geopolitical issues that have had a profound impact on the flourishing of bilateral cooperation.[9] Due to conflicting interests around the Indian Ocean strategy, historical legacy issues and interference from third-party countries, it is unlikely that bilateral relations between India and China will enter a "honeymoon period" within a short period of time.This, coupled with India's own domestic situation and the intervention and interference of extraterritorial powers represented by the United States, means that the road to cooperation between the two world's most populous countries will be fraught with difficulties.
Competition and friction are inevitable in the historical process of China's renaissance and India's rise.[10] However, there is no fundamental opposition of interests between China and India, and the revival of China will not take away the interests that originally belonged to India; on the contrary, the cooperation between China and India can expand the total amount of interests and make both sides mutually beneficial.[11] It is true that there have been difficult periods in the history of India-China relations, but on the whole the relationship has always developed in a positive direction, and both countries are aware of the importance of maintaining friendly relations between them.In the current international situation, Sino-Indian cooperation will continue to be characterised by both competition and cooperation for some time to come.China and India can strengthen bilateral cooperation in a number of fields, including politics, economics and culture, and continue to strengthen their sense of cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect, seeking common ground while reserving differences and common development.[12] Under the historical conditions of the world's unprecedented changes in the past century, only through closer and closer cooperation and interaction can China and India gradually deepen mutual trust, gradually resolve contradictions and differences, and engage in more and more extensive and pragmatic collaboration, so that bilateral relations can flourish towards a better and healthier direction, thus making greater contributions to peace and development in the Indo-Pacific region and the world in the post-epidemic era.[13]