In recent years, China has achieved the “rise of economy”, which shows the hegemonic behavior to change the current situation by force in the political and secure fields including the South China Sea issue. Meanwhile, regional integration and free trade is promoted by China’s leadership in economic field. Whether it has been named as hegemony or leadership in above ways, the rising of great power tends to accompany expansionist diplomacy that trying to expand its influence and rules to other countries and regions.

Studies of the rising Chinese diplomacy were increasingly well-documented, but some of them just analyzed the reasons of Chinese expansionist diplomacy, which mainly focused on China’s “push factors”. However, it is still poor understood whether neighboring countries react to China’s behavior passively or not. In the present paper, relations between China and Pakistan from the viewpoint of Pakistan side will be further discussed.

The ambition and willingness of China is a necessary prerequisite in Chinese expansionism diplomacy. Therefore, this paper will discuss the following parts. First of all, existing research has focused on “push factor” of China’s side which explained “why China expands” and “how to expand”. Nevertheless, this approach didn’t take account into the reaction of target countries, which was closely related to the Chinese expansionism diplomacy could be accepted. Secondly, the “push factor” of the China’s side has been reported to play an important role in the development of China’s expansion. And the “pull factor” from the target country’s side may also contribute to its expansion.

The present paper reviewed the Sino-Pak relations, and then analyzed the “pull factors” of Pakistan side that influenced the development of China’s expansionist diplomacy. Together, unlike the “push factor”, which emphasized China’s diplomatic strategy and hegemonic ambition about Chinese expansionism diplomacy, this paper indicated that we should not overlook the “pull factor”, which Pakistan spontaneously depended on China due to the difficulties of domestic and foreign affairs in the country. Specifically, it was assumed that the “pull factor” led to the expansion of China, and how far target countries accept its expansion as well. Based on the studies about the diplomacy of rising China, it seems reasonable to assume that “push factor” complementing by “pull factor”.

This study aims to explain the cycle of conflict escalation and tension reduction between India and Pakistan during the post-Cold War period. India and Pakistan have reiterated military conflict and diplomatic dialogue since their independence. They have fought three wars against each other and now have the highest risk of nuclear war worldwide. In the post-Cold War period, India and Pakistan have often threatened nuclear war, with incidents including the India-Pakistan nuclear armament in May 1998, the Kargil conflict from May to July 1999, and a military standoff from December 2001 to May 2002. Conflict escalation between the two countries has been explained from two standpoints. First, studies focusing on the structural factors of international politics have explained that the end of the Cold War fostered conflicts between India and Pakistan. Second, studies focusing on the internal political factors affecting India and Pakistan showed that the instability of Pakistan’s democratic institutions and the rise of extreme religious ideologies in both countries facilitated the conflicts. However, such factors are insufficient to explain the cycle of conflict escalation and tension reduction between India and Pakistan during the post-Cold War period.

First, this paper discusses how the ideology of the Indian regime affects the India-Pakistan relationship. Second, the degree of stability of the ruling coalition in the Indian parliament influences the cycle of conflict and tension reduction between India and Pakistan. Thus, this paper reveals the dynamics of conflict escalation and tension reduction between India and Pakistan.