Vivekananda International Foundation | Seeking Harmony in Diversity

Chinese Data Collection- Domestically and Internationally - A talk by Professor Christopher Balding

Several reports—news media and research, has highlighted the Chinese government’s engagement in data collection at a massive scale across multiple domains, for various purposes—including enhancing State security/surveillance. For a better and in-depth understanding of the China’s tech-enhanced data collection—domestically and internationally; on 16 October 2020, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a virtual discussion with Professor Christopher Balding—an Associate Professor at the Fulbright University Vietnam.

October 24, 2020 Event Report

Does the World Need Chinese Hegemony?

Brigadier V Mahalingam (Retd)

In 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao said that China’s rise “will not come at the cost of any other country, will not stand in the way of any other country, nor pose a threat to any other country”. The broad Pacific Ocean is vast enough to embrace both China and the United States”, said Chinese President Xi Jinping while meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry in Beijing in May 2015.

October 23, 2020 Paper

Power behind Arrogance: Assessment of China’s Air and Missile Arsenal

Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM

Going backwards from recent acts of Chinese belligerence and barbaric conduct in Galwan (sic) totally divorced from all ethos of soldiering, into events of the recent past, a pattern emerges. A pattern of Chinese aggressiveness, arrogance and more; unfreezing and heating up the border issue with India with a stink of hegemony and while the temperatures are high on both sides, carrying out military drills just across the border as if to send a crude message to India.

June 23, 2020 Issue Brief

Great Game East: India, China and the Struggle for Asia’s Most Volatile Frontier by Bertil Linter, Publishers: Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2015

Dr Cchavi Vasisht

Arthur Conolly, an intelligence officer of British East India Company, conceived the expression “great game” to define the strategic rivalry between the British and the Russian empires to acquire supremacy in Central Asia. It was further used to define rivalries between the United States and other Western powers vis-a-vis Russia and China over usage of Central Asia’s resources. Bertil Linter, in his book, contextualised the expression ‘Great Game’ for Asia, existing at the crossroads of the Indian Subcontinent, China and Southeast Asia.

May 26, 2020 Books/Book Review

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative Concept, Context and Assessment by Siegfried O. Wolf, Springer, Switzerland, 2020, £88, ISBN 978-3-030-16198

Aakriti Vinayak

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative that was officially launched in April 2015, promised to be a game changer. The economic corridor that would link Kashgar in Xinjiang to Gwadar in Baluchistan five years later has entered its second phase. While the first phase was essentially about electricity projects and railway lines the second phase has special emphasis on development of special economic zones, agriculture, industry, trade and science and technology.

May 23, 2020 Books/Book Review

Round Table Discussion on China-Pakistan Nexus

The VIF organized a Round Table Discussion (RTD) to discuss the China-Pakistan Nexus. Dr Arvind Gupta, Amb Satish Chandra, Amb Ashok Kantha, Amb TCA Rangachari, Amb Amar Sinha, Mr Tilak Devasher, VAdm Satish Soni, Lt Gen Ravi Sawhney and Cmde Gopal Suri participated in the discussion. Diversification of the ‘Strategic Glue’

March 23, 2020 Event Report

Interaction with International Department of Communist Party of China Central Committee (IDCPC)

The Vivekananda International Foundation hosted a delegation from the International Department of CPC Central Committee (IDCPC) on 16 January 2020. The delegation was led by Dong Weihua, Deputy Director-General of Research Office of International Department of CPC, and Vice-Secretary-General of China Council for BRICS Think Tank Cooperation (CCBTC).

February 10, 2020 Event Report

Interaction with the Delegation from the Fudan University, Shanghai

The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) hosted a delegation from the Fudan University, Shanghai on 14 November 2019. The Delegation was led by Zhang Weiwei, Distinguished Professor of International Relations and Director of the China Institute at Fudan University. The other members of the delegations were Zhu Caihua, Fan Yongpeng, and Lin Minwang. Hu Hailiang and Qin Wenci were from the Division of Information and Public Diplomacy, Department of Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.

December 10, 2019 Event Report

Discussion on Book, ‘Containing the China Onslaught’, authored by Mr. Pradip Baijal

On 3rd October 2019, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) held a book discussion on the book, ‘Containing the China Onslaught’, written by Mr. Pradip Baijal, a former Indian Administrative Service official. Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF opened the discussion by introducing Mr. Baijal to the audience and gave an introduction to the book.

December 05, 2019 Event Report

Interaction with the Delegation from Shanghai Institute of International Studies

The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) hosted a delegation from Shanghai Institute of International Studies on 19 September 2019 at VIF. The delegation was led by Dr Chen Dongxiao, the other members of the delegations were Liu Youfa (served as Ambassadorial Consul General of China to Mumbai), Liu Zongyi, Cao Jiahan and Sun Shasha.

October 22, 2019 Event Report