While Beijing has remained engaged with South Asian neighbors since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the recent decade or so period has witnessed an intensification of economic and commercial cooperation. This two way cooperation between China and its southern neighbors is cementing further and the outlook is quite positive in the wake of unfolding of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). India, has dominated the affairs of the region for around 7 decades. China's relationship with Pakistan has always remained cordial, other smaller South Asian nations are coming increasingly closer to China and see Beijing as an option as compared to single-handed dependence on New Delhi.
Bajpaee, Chietigj, Jamie Horsley, Trevor Houser, Carl Minzner, and James Mulvenon, and Dan Rosen, “THE CHINA BALANCE SHEET IN 2007 AND BEYOND” (Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, April 2007), 109.
Batra, Amita Batra. Regional Economic Integration in South Asia: Trapped in Conflict? , vol. 64 (Routledge, 2012), 4.
Chau, Donovan C. Chau and Thomas M. Kane, China and International Security: History, Strategy, and 21st-Century Policy (ABC-CLIO, 2014).
Cheng, Dean. “China's View of South Asia and the Indian Ocean,” Heritage Lectures 1163, no. 18 (2010).
Cheng, Yao Chao. “China's Role in the Asian Economic Unification Process,” Economic and Political Weekly (2005) 3949–52.
Hewage, Kitmina Hewage, “Sri Lanka's Strategic Promiscuity”, South Asian Voices , October 5, 2017.
In Joint Pursuit of a Dream of National Renewal”, Speech by President Xi Jinping at the Indian Council of World Affairs, 18 September 2014 available at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/zjpcxshzzcygyslshdsschybdtjkstmedfsllkydjxgsfw/t1194300.shtml
Jones, David T. “China and Asia,” 2011.
Keidel, Albert. “China's Economic Rise: Fact and Fiction”. Washinton DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, July 2008),
Li, Zhang. “China–India Relations, Strategic Engagement and Challenges,” Asie. Visions , no. 34 (2010).
Liqun, Zhu. “China's Foreign Policy Debates,” Chaillot Papers (Paris: Institute for Security Studies European Union, September 2010).
Mière, Christian Le. “Kabul's New Patron? The Growing Afghan-Chinese Relationship,” Foreign Affairs 13 (2010).
Rahman, Khalid. “Regional Cooperation, Global Challenges, SAARC and China” In Policy Perspectives , Vlm. 9, no. 1 (2012).
Small, Andrew. “China's Caution on Afghanistan–Pakistan,” The Washington Quarterly 33, no. 3 (2010): 81–97.