Relations with India and Pakistan

India has conflicts with China over a border area in the almost inaccessible Tibetan Plateau as well as conflicts with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir. India also has continued internal domestic conflicts between Hindus and Muslims and between Hindus and Sikhs. Since India is one of China's major competitors in Asia, China has sought to exploit some of India's conflicts for its own gain.

In the past, communication and conflict between China and India were limited because of the ruggedness of the intervening Himalaya Mountains in Tibet. Neither China nor India was a major sea power, so the two countries had no conflicts of any significance until the twentieth century. The Tibetan Plateau, previously a barrier to conflict, may have now become a source of conflict. Tibet may be rich in minerals that could be accessible using modern techniques. Thus, India and China have had an ongoing border dispute that falls in a rather inaccessible area of high desolate mountains on the border between them. China is also displeased with Indian support for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan autonomy movement.

Political, economic, and even boundary differences pale when the nuclear dimension is added. During the 1960's China became the first Asian country to detonate a nuclear device. It developed missiles capable of delivering such nuclear weapons during the 1970's and 1980's. Chinese acquisition of nuclear weapons led the Indians to develop nuclear weapons to deter the Chinese. In turn, India's nuclear weapons provoked Pakistan to seek help from the Chinese to develop their own nuclear weapons.

The Indian decision to become a public member of the nuclear club by detonating nuclear devices in 1998 led the Pakistanis to respond with nuclear tests of their own. While the degree of Chinese assistance to the Pakistanis is uncertain, these competitive nuclear tests aggravated relations between India and China. The possibility that China may have been partly responsible for this nuclear arms race has created tensions between China and those worried about nuclear proliferation.