China’s Belief System and Sino-Indian Relations: The Maoist Era

Unfriendly relations between states develop quickly and more easily when they follow conflicting ideologies. Ideological differences produce perceptional and attitudinal differences which restrain policy makers of states from conducting mutual relations in a friendly fashion. As a Communist and as a Chinese, Mao was in the habit of defining and redefining the political world around China, and applied his definition in determining China’s relations with other countries including India. Multiple factors particularly China’s border psychology and India’s growing cordiality with the United States and the Soviet Union served to promote and sustain an atmosphere of no confidence, distrust and disbelief. Written in a lucid style this book examines Mao’s various definitions of the political world and provides an analytical account of how they came to determine China’s relations with India.