"India and China must work 'hand-in-hand to ensure that the 21st century belongs to Asia.'" more ›

Yesterday the Chinese government officially denied that the Karmapa Lama, currently in exile in India, is a Chinese spy. The Karmapa (the third most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism) has been embroiled in controversy this past week after about $1.5 million in foreign currencies were found in his monastery in Dharamsala last Friday. Chinese yuan was among the cash found and subsequently sparked speculation that the Karmapa might be an agent for the Chinese government. more ›

Despite a theme touting "Living in harmony through the ages", the India Pavilion so far has been less than peaceful. First, a debacle with some politically sensitive maps and now, in a dispute over salary, Chinese workers are maliciously taking out their anger by....turning off the lights. more ›

Despite having roughly similar amounts of people in roughly the same area of the world, China and India have developed very, very differently. One difference: how quickly they urbanized. While China's urban population jumped 41% a year from 1950 to 2005, India is "still waking up to its urban realities and opportunities," says McKinsey Quarterly. more ›

Perhaps one of the loudest signals of uneasiness towards their Eastern neighbor in recent months, the Indian national government has decided to cancel plans to rebuild their part of the Stilwell Road. The road, a former World War II supply route built under US General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell, used to connect Kunming to the city of Ledo, with much of it going through what is now Myanmar. The Chinese portion of the road was finished years ago. The ruling junta in Myanmar has supported rebuilding Stilwell Road, but progress has been slow. India was the last of the three countries to agree to start construction. Source: Go Kunming more ›

• Protest at China TV tower [The Straits Times] "Demonstrators gathered outside a fire-gutted tower near the new China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters in Beijing on Tuesday, protesting against what they called forced eviction, state press said. About 30 residents accused the state-run television station of trying to get them to move from the area to make way for the massive and nearly completed construction project, Xinhua news agency said. After about an hour, police persuaded the protesters to put away their banners and leave, the report said. "
• China Backs Off Latest Rio Tinto Claims [WSJ] "Chinese officials distanced the government from allegations on a state-backed Web site that employees of mining giant Rio Tinto PLC had used years of "deceit" to obtain state secrets that cost China's steel industry more than $100 billion — spotlighting the murky and often confusing way China handles such secrecy cases. The allegations, published over the weekend, had quickly gained widespread attention, as they appeared to represent the government ratcheting up pressure over the case of four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian citizen, who were detained last month by the Shanghai State Security Bureau on vague accusations of using bribery to obtain secrets that harmed China's national interests."
• Another suspect dies in Kunming police custody [GoKunming] "A man being held in detention in Kunming died in a hospital on Saturday with no clear cause of death, according to a Xinhua report. According to a police spokesperson speaking to reporters on Sunday, 43-year-old Wang Shukun (王树坤) had been held in the Guandu District Detention Center since July 19 before being checked into a hospital by police on August 6. After undergoing emergency procedures to save his life, Wang died early Saturday, the spokesperson said."

So admittedly we're not an expert in India-China relations, but last we checked, they weren't exactly sour. Sure, we're not best buddy-buds with our neighbors to the South, but we seem to back each other up a lot on certain issues (like climate change). more ›