China’s Achilles’ Heel

Book excerpt: This book analyses Chinese discourse on Indian attitudes towards the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), and argues that the Indian discourse is becoming one of the biggest hurdles to China creating its own narrative about China’s rise in Asia and beyond. In doing so, it spans across the themes of the power struggle between China and US, China and India, the Chinese perception of India, China-South Asia relations, the China-US- India strategic triangle and the success and failures of BRI. The first part of the book focuses on the Chinese thinking behind the launch of the BRI and addresses questions related to the purpose of this initiative and ways in which it will facilitate China’s rise as a superpower. Subsequently the book addresses how effective or ineffective India’s challenge is and how it is negatively affecting China’s BRI.