Crossroads: China's relation in South Asia

Crossroads – China’s role in south asia.

We will analyze and discuss China's policy of incursion on borders and their aggressive economic push into South Asian countries via investments – Tibet, Nepal, Ladakh.

Panelists:     Vijay Kranti, Author, Media Educationist

                    Mukuk Sanwal, Policy Advisor

                    Brig Ajay Talwar, Military Personnel

Moderator:   B R Deepak, Professor and Chair, Centre for Chinese & Southeast Asian Studies

Vijay Kranti: An expert on China and Tibet affairs, he is an author, traveler, photographer, media educationist, a former staffer of the BBC World, Deutsche Welle (German), and Radio Voice of America. Between 2003 and 2010, Kranti traveled incognito on a tourist visa deep into Tibet and China on eight separate occasions.

Equipped with his camera, he captured vivid details of Chinese suppression of Tibetan people, arts, culture, and religion besides their military infrastructure development along borders with India. While doing so, he narrowly survived the scrutiny of suspicious Chinese authorities on many occasions. He has penned about a dozen books.

Mukul Sanwal: Served in various policy positions in the Indian government, including industry, agriculture, and the environment. He represented the Indian government at the Rio Conference in 1992 as a lead negotiator for the Climate Change treaty. He joined the U.N in 1993 as a policy adviser to the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and later to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He retired in 2007 and is now associated with think-tanks in India and China. He has a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Brig Ajay Talwar: An alumnus of Mayo College, Ajmer, Brig Ajay Talwar was commissioned into the MECH INF Regiment. He was the Defense Attaché at the Embassy of India, Ankara, concurrently accredited to Syria and Lebanon. He has commanded an Armoured Brigade and has been the Deputy General Officer Commanding of the Infantry Division in Ladakh. He has seen operational service in Nagaland, Jammu, and Kashmir and the 2006 War in Lebanon.

B. R. Deepak is Professor and Chair at the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was trained in Chinese history and India-China relations at the Peking University and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and University of Edinburgh, UK. He has been the Nehru and Asia Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. Dr. Deepak's publications include India and China: Beyond the binary of friendship and enmity (2020), China’s Global Rebalancing and the New Silk Road(2018), My Tryst with China (2017), India and China: Foreign Policy Approaches and Responses (2016), India and China 1904-2004: A Century of Peace and Conflict (2005), India-China Relations in the first half of Twentieth Century(2001), India-China Relations: Future Perspectives (co ed. 2012), India-China Relations: Civilizational Perspective (co ed. 2012) China: Agriculture, Countryside and Peasants (2010). Some of his translations from Chinese to Hindi and English include: Parva (2020), Ji Xianlin: A Critical Biography (2019) The Four Books (2018); Core Values of Chinese Civilization (2018), The Analects of Confucius (2016), Mencius (2017), My Life with Kotnis (2010) Chinese Poetry: 1100 BC to 1400 AD (2011), a translation of 85 selected classical poems for which he was awarded the 2011 “Special Book Prize of China.” He write “Eye on China” column for Sunday Guardian B. R. Deepak, Author at The Sunday Guardian Live