Former intelligence officer and author Vappala Balachandran believes India and China must “learn to coexist” as two major Asian powers, setting aside their political differences to focus on peace, trade and regional stability.
Speaking to StratNews Global about his new book, India and China At Odds In The Asian Century (2025), Balachandran said his key message was that relations between the two civilisations had historically been rich and respectful, far from the current tension. “From prehistoric times, India and China had excellent relations — cultural, religious and intellectual,” he said, recalling ancient figures like Kashyapa Matanga, Kumarajiva, and Bodhidharma who shaped Buddhism in China and are still honoured there.
He said modern ties, too, had moments of “Sakura”—a Japanese term for cherry blossom, symbolising harmony. “Till 1959, Indo-China relations were in the Sakura season,” he noted, adding that the spirit of cooperation continued until the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leaked letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton “brought that season to an end.”
Balachandran defended Jawaharlal Nehru’s China policy, arguing that the first Prime Minister “understood China very well.” “He was pragmatic. He knew India could not afford a war. We had just faced Partition,” he said.
While acknowledging border tensions, he said both sides must avoid military confrontation. “If there is a war tomorrow with China, we might even win. But is it worth it? If we can have an accommodation and keep the border issue in cold storage, that is preferable,” he said.
He emphasised that at a people-to-people level, relations remain cordial, citing examples of Indian businessmen flourishing in China. “They do not hate Indians. They just don’t know enough about us,” he remarked.
On the Quad, Balachandran clarified that it was “never meant to be a military alliance.” As for U.S. policy, he dismissed the idea that Washington ever saw India as a counterweight to China. “America never really believed that,” he said. Besides, “We have our own pride — we are not a pliable ally.”
Balachandran received the Lifetime Achievement Award for National Security at the India Defence Conclave in New Delhi in November 2025.
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
