ABSTRACT
Right from the beginning, Nehru acknowledged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a leading country in the Asian continent and perceived joint India-China leadership to achieve the goal of Asian solidarity. Expanding Chinese military presence in Tibet emerged as security threat and exercised a critical impact on India’s China policy. Tibet was a major factor which shaped India’s China policy in the initial years. Although Nehru was eager to maintain Tibet as a buffer but he chose not to resist the PRC in Tibet strongly because he was more interested in pursuing Sino-Indian amity. Responding to this altered national security situation became, and has remained, a fundamental determinant in India’s China policy. There was a debate on India’s China policy between Nehru and Patel, though that debate could not last long because of the latter’s death. At the regional level, India has also been responding to China’s regional policy initiatives.
