The Washington Post reported on November 5 that although China and India have successfully restored direct flights, the future of bilateral relations remains uncertain. On the evening of October 26, about 176 passengers took an IndiGo flight from Kolkata, India to Guangzhou, China. In the coming months, other direct flights between the two countries will gradually resume. However, despite the recent improvement in Sino-Indian relations, the actual extent of improvement is still being questioned. The Chinese perspective holds that restoring bilateral relations still requires time and political vision. Lin Minwang, vice director of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, pointed out that the resumption of direct flights is not a substantive shift in bilateral relations, but more related to the economic pressure the Trump administration has placed on India. "Modi's policy towards China largely depends on the progress of India-US and Sino-US relations," he said. Liu Zongyi, director of the South Asia Research Center at the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, pointed out that Sino-Indian relations cannot return to the state before the pandemic, and the lack of people-to-people exchanges is creating an information cocoon, with fewer and fewer Indians truly understanding China. From the Indian perspective, the thawing of Sino-Indian relations may further strengthen India's reliance on China, making it difficult for India to focus on its own national capacity building. At the same time, the Indian business community has called for a pragmatic approach to promote cooperation between the two countries, arguing that "if India continues to view China as a threat, it will miss economic development opportunities" and "Sino-Indian joint ventures can drive local manufacturing to achieve self-sufficiency."
Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1848061944342667/
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