Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c14.s2.t5: Visit of Chinese Leaders to India Since the Establishment of India-China Diplomatic Relations
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c14.s2.t5
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Visit of Chinese Leaders to India Since the Establishment of India-China Diplomatic Relations
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On April 1, 1950, the Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations formally. Thereafter, Chinese leaders have visited India many times on the invitation of Indian leaders, with the results of deepening mutual understanding, promoting the bilateral relations and strengthening India-China friendship. Zhou Enlai, Premier of the Government Administration Council of the People’s Republic of China (present-day State Council of the People’s Republic of China), was invited to visit India for the first time during June 25-28, 1954. During the visit, he had six formal meetings with Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, reaffirming the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence guiding India-China relations and met Rajendra Prasad, the Indian President, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Indian Vice-president. Premier Zhou Enlai paid his second visit to India to discuss with Nehru on the border issues from November 28 to December 10, in 1956. He made a speech at the joint conference of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha of India to appraise and express great expectations of India-China friendship and unity and to state the position and viewpoint of the Chinese Government regarding international situations. In addition, he also visited Delhi, Mumbai, Madras and Calcutta. Premier Zhou Enlai paid his third visit to India from April 19-26, in 1960. He met Indian President Rajendra Prasad and had multiple meetings with Nehru to exchange opinions on the border issues and India-China relations, after which the Joint Communiqué of the Premiers of China and India was published to express that the two countries would solve the border issues jointly.
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Song Qingling in conversation with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on October 19, 1954
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From December 11-16, 1991, Li Peng, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, was invited to visit India. It was not only the first visit of Chinese premier to India since 1960 but also a return visit of the visit of Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, to China in 1988. During the visit, Li Peng met Narasimha Rao, Indian Prime Minister, Ramaswamy Venkataraman, Indian President, and Shankar Dayal Sharma, Indian Vice President, with whom he exchanged opinions on India-China relations and major international and regional issues. Both sides signed the five agreements on consuls, border trade and technical cooperation and published the Joint Communiqué of China and India to reiterate the two countries’ hope to keep on developing the neighbourly and friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation relations between the two countries and reach a solution to border issues by negotiation as soon as possible on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. This visit promoted the comprehensive improvement and development of India-China relations, further enhanced mutual understanding and friendship and played an important role in building the constructive cooperative partnership between both sides.
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From November 28- December 1, 1996, Jiang Zemin, President of the People’s Republic of China, visited India, which was the first visit of China’s head to India. During the visit, President Jiang Zemin had a meeting with H D Gowda, Indian Prime Minister and Shankar Dayal Sharma, Indian President. Both sides expressed their hope in establishing a friendly relationship in future and building a constructive cooperative partnership on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. In addition, President Jiang Zemin also met Sitaram Kesri, Chairman of the Indian National Congress Party and delivered a speech at the reception held by Indian industrial and commercial circles, expressing the expectations and proposing suggestions on the economic cooperation between the two countries.
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Zhu Rongji, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, paid an official visit to India from January 14-18 in 2002, during which time he had an official meeting with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian Prime Minister, and met other Indian leaders and representatives from all sectors of society. Premier Zhu also visited Mumbai and Bangalore to strengthen the India-China trade contacts and economic and technical cooperation. Both sides had reached six agreements and memoranda and signed cooperative documents covering the areas of tourism, using the outer space peacefully, water conservancy, talent exchange, science and technology and plant quarantine and so on during this visit, which enhanced mutual trust and laid the foundation for building constructive cooperative partnership, pushing forward the economic, cultural and scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries into a new stage.
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Premier of the State Council of People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai on his visit to India in 1954
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Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, visited India from April 9-12 in 2005, during which he met several Indian leaders, such as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, Sonia Gandhi, Chairman of the Indian National Congress Party, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Indian Vice President and ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and Lal Krishna Advani, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Premiers of the two countries published a joint communiqué to announce the establishment of a strategic cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity to promote the bilateral relations to a new level. Both sides signed agreement on the political guiding principles, which is the first political guidance document on the border issues since restoring the negotiation of border issues in 1981, symbolising a new stage of the India-China border negotiation. In addition, both sides published a five-year plan of comprehensive economic and trade cooperation to provide a guide for the bilateral trade development. During this visit, Premier Wen made a speech titled *Hand-in-Hand, Creating a Better Future* at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, calling on all the young people in India and China to create a peaceful and prosperous future hand-in-hand and proposing concrete suggestions on building strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.
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From November 20-23, 2006, Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China, paid a state visit to India, which was the first visit of the head of China to India since the establishment of India-China strategic cooperative partnership. During this visit, President Hu had a meeting with Premier Singh and met with President Kalam, Sonia Gandhi, Chairman of the Indian National Congress Party, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Indian Vice President and ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of the Lok Sabha and L K Advani, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Both sides reached a consensus on the India-China strategic cooperative partnership and expressed that both sides would be devoted to safeguarding the interests of the developing countries, promoting world multi-polarisation and the democratisation of the international relations and promoting the continuous development of the India-China strategic cooperative partnership. President Hu also met young Indian and Chinese representatives and attended the celebration activities of the “Sino-Indian Friendship Year” together with Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam. President Hu made an important speech titled as *To Create a Better Future Together by Expanding the Mutual Cooperation* regarding the India-China relations and the development course of China in the Indian Science Palace in New Delhi. He then went to Mumbai to attend the Sino-Indian Economic Investment and Cooperation Summit and the Forum of CEOs, in which he also made an important speech. This visit facilitated the cooperation of the two countries in many areas such as investment, health quarantine, human resource development, forestry, cultural relics and establishing consulate-generals mutually.
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Premier Wen Jiabao paid another visit to India from December 15-17 in 2010, during which he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil, Sonia Gandhi, Chairman of the Indian National Congress Party and other Indian leaders. He delivered a speech in the Indian Council of World Affairs to comprehensively set forth the policies and position of China towards India-China relations and presented the awards to the Indian friendly personages who had made contributions to the development of the India-China relations. During this visit, both sides published the Sino-Indian Joint Communiqué to announce to establish a regular exchange visit mechanism for the heads and principals and an annual exchange visit mechanism for the ministers of foreign affairs of both countries and to reiterate the determination of pursuing fair, reasonable solutions to border issues acceptable by both sides through negotiation and maintain the peace and tranquility in border areas in a practical way before solving the issues. Both sides also decided to build the India-China strategic economic dialogue mechanism and a forum of CEOs, developed a bilateral trade development goal, and planned to further extend the cooperation in the areas of investment, high-tech and energy. Both sides declared 2011 as “Sino-Indian Exchange Year”, during which they would invite the youth from the other side to deepen the exchange and cooperation in the areas of media and education.
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Invited by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, visited India from May 19-22 in 2013, during which he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia Gandhi, Chairman of the Indian National Congress Party, Salman Khurshid, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other Indian leaders. Both sides published a joint communiqué expressing that they would seize the historic opportunity to enhance the mutually political trust, promote practical cooperation and broaden cultural exchange and decided to take 2014 as the “Sino-Indian Friendly Exchange Year” and complete the Sino-Indian Cultural Exchange Encyclopaedia in 2014. They agreed to start the inter-translation of classic Chinese and Indian works and continue to hold the annual exchange visit of a delegation of a 100 young people. Premier Li also visited Tata Group in Mumbai and attended the Sino-Indian Business Summit during which he made a speech. During this visit, the two countries had reached a consensus in the areas of economic and trade cooperation, eg, promoting trade liberalisation, developing large cooperation projects in the areas of industrial park and infrastructure, building the Bangladesh-China-India-Burma Economic Corridor and taking measures to cope with trade imbalance. This visit promoted the India-China strategic partnership for peace and prosperity to a higher level.
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(*Wang Lingnan & Qiao Anquan*)
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RAJIV GANDHI’S VISIT TO CHINA IN 1988
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On the invitation of the Chinese Premier Li Peng, the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi paid an official visit to China from December 19-23, 1988. He was accompanied by his wife Sonia Gandhi, Indian External Affairs Minister, Narasimha Rao, Minister of Commerce, Dinesh Singh, Minister of Law and Justice and Water Resources, Dr B Shankaranand, Minister of State for External Affairs, K Natwar Singh and other Indian officials.
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The visit was regarded as a major event in the history of India-China relations as it was the first visit to China by an Indian Prime Minister in 34 years after the ‘*Panchsheel*’ agreement was signed in Beijing on April 29, 1954. It marked a departure from the mutual mistrust that had frozen the relationship between the two countries since the India-China border conflict in 1962. During Gandhi’s visit, both governments signed the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Science and Technology, Civil Air Transport Agreement, and the Executive Programme regarding the Agreement for Cultural Cooperation Years for the years 1988, 1989 and 1990. The Indian delegation also toured historical sites and scenic spots in Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai and encouraged the practice of learning from each other in future.
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Both sides decided that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which was earlier a joint initiative by India and China, should constitute the basic guiding principle for good relations between the two countries. Both sides laid emphasis on the restoration and development of good neighbourly relations which would contribute to peace and stability in Asia and also in the world in a larger context.
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During the visit, the leaders on both sides carried out sincere and detailed discussions on the India-China border issue and reached a common consensus to solve this issue through peaceful and friendly consultations. In this context, a Joint Working Group between the two countries was set up to be headed by the Indian Foreign Secretary and the Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister. It was decided that the Group would meet every six months alternately in the capitals of India and China. The senior representatives of both armies and the ministry of defense would also be part of the Group. The Indian side also affirmed that India considered Tibet as an integral part of China and no anti-China activities were permitted on Indian soil.
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Gandhi’s visit to China significantly increased the bilateral exchanges between the two countries in the subsequent years and upgraded India-China relations. He also invited Chinese Premier Li Peng to visit India at his convenience which he readily accepted.
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(*Sabaree Mitra*)
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CHINESE CULTURAL DELEGATION’S VISIT TO INDIA IN 1954
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On the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Chinese government sent a 60 member Chinese cultural delegation to visit India in 1954. The delegation was led by the Deputy Minister of Culture Zheng Zhenduo and the deputy head of the delegation was Zhou Erfu, Deputy Minister of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department. This delegation included troupes of music, dance and Chinese opera with Dai Ailian, the famous Chinese ballerina, as its Art Director. This represented a significant step in developing people-to-people relations between India and China in the early 1950s.
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The delegation performed in Calcutta (Kolkata), Bombay (Mumbai) and in New Delhi, where its performance was received with warmth and enthusiasm. The delegation was accorded a high level reception from the Indian government, as Premier Zhou Enlai had just returned to China after signing the ‘*Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence*’ or the ‘*Panchsheel*’ Treaty with the Indian Government. Nehru designated his daughter Indira Gandhi as the reception committee chairperson.
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During their stay in India, some of the Chinese dancers were enthralled with the beauty and
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*Rajiv Gandhi on his visit to China in 1988* charm of the Indian dance forms and they were encouraged by the troupe Art Director Dai Ailian to learn Indian dance. This was the beginning of the long and intimate relationship that the famous Chinese danseuse Zhang Jun had with Indian dance
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Zheng Zhenze and Zhou Erfu as leader and deputy leader of the State Cultural delegation that visited India in 1954
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forms such as Kathak, Bharatanatyam and Odissi. The delegation also included famous Peking Opera performers such as Li Shaochun, Yuan Shihai, Ye Shengzhang and Li Hezeng.
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The visit of Chinese Cultural Delegation to India in 1954-55. This photograph was taken on arrival of the Delegation at the Palam Airport. Cheng Chento, Vice-Minister of Cultural Affairs of the People's Republic of China, appears third form the left. On his left is Indira Gandhi, Chairman of the Reception Committee for the Delegation. At extreme left in the picture is A K Chanda, Deputy Minister for External Affairs, Government of India.
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(*Sabaree Mitra*)