India’s Perception of China: Underlying Reasons and Responding Policies

　　ABSTRACT:This paper describes India’s unfavorable perception of China’s rise in light of Pew Global Attitude Survey ranging from 2005 to 2011.Then,this paper elucidates the underlying reasons from individual, national and systemic levels. In the individual level, it is the ignorance and pride of the Indian public coupled with the misrepresentation of China by some Indian journalists that directly leads to such perception of China in India.In the national level, the thorny issues including the border dispute, Tibet issue, the Sino-Indo-Pakistan triangle as well as the Sino-Indo-American triangle also shaped India’s China perception.In the systematic level,the obvious security dilemma between India and China serves as the reason. The paper also introduces intercultural contact hypothesis and public diplomacy practices in order to help to shape and highlight positive China perception in India.