ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the current Indian debate on China is shifting to one where its rising influence is looked at as being mostly assertively revisionist. Xi Jinping’s “new era” foreign policy strategy to restructure and redesign the global political and financial landscape through initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has created headlines. If Western scholars are to be believed, China is moving away from its traditional “status quo” power to one fast showing “revisionist” tendencies. What are India’s options in this regard? This chapter analyses how India has started nurturing a “comprehensive” relationship with China despite all the “China threat” concerns. Such a purposive partnership involves India taking advantage of the Chinese initiatives which are essentially part of the “Beijing Consensus” framework by joining or limitedly supporting China in global financial institutions. By inculcating a strategically conducive dimension to their “Strategic and Cooperative Partnership”, India is choosing to participate in a range of selective “revisionist” initiatives while balancing its relationship with other major powers.
