appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Brian Y. S. Wong

“I shall consider myself fortunate if, through this visit, China comes nearer to India and India to China – for no political or commercial purpose, but for disinterested human love and for nothing else.”
These words were uttered by Rabindranath Tagore, one of India’s most legendary poets, on his 1924 visit to China.
A century later, the Sino-Indian relationship stands at an inflection point.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit China for the first time in seven years, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on August 31 and September 1. This comes on the heels of the recent visit by the veteran Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Beijing, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Earlier this year, the two countries agreed to resume direct flights, which had been paused for over five years since the ignominious Galwan Valley clash in 2020.
On the other hand, last week, US President Donald Trump imposed an extra 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, which will raise the overall tariff rate to 50 per cent from August 27, citing India’s imports of Russian oil as the justification.
Despite the best efforts of US Vice-President J.D. Vance, Trump’s antics with regards to tensions between India and Pakistan, his rhetoric towards the Indian leadership and moments such as his crass exchange with an Indian journalist earlier this year reflect the growing wedge between Washington and New Delhi.


With both India and China pushing for more strategic autonomy and representation on the world stage, the US establishment appears increasingly incapable of navigating a multiplex order, where “the rival of my rival is not my friend”.
Yet the Sino-Indian relationship should not be viewed primarily through the lens of their ties with the US. Indeed, as the two most populous nations and critical pillars of the Global South community, there exists much room for synergy.
Consider, for instance, the prospects for deepened trade and closely integrated supply chains. Recent years have seen India pitted against China as an alternative manufacturing destination, undergirded by voices advocating for multinational corporations to partake in “China plus one” diversification.
Such claims overlook significant potential trade complementarity, given China’s robust industrial base – especially in areas of advanced manufacturing, including robotics, electric vehicles and photovoltaic solar cells – and India’s manufacturing prowess when it comes to organic chemicals and select metals.

In an era of escalating trade barriers, both Beijing and New Delhi alike would benefit immensely from mutually lowering barriers to entry – shoring up legal protections and easing access to office space, land and workers – for each other’s corporations.
With clear strengths in information and communication technology services, Indian companies can play a key role in improving the downstream resilience, branding, customer service and network maintenance of select Chinese manufacturers that have long struggled to integrate themselves into the English-speaking world of consumers.
Despite their widely divergent political systems, Beijing and New Delhi are also keen to usher in a more multipolar world in which no single power can unilaterally call the shots for other geopolitical players.
From supporting stable relations with Russia and diplomatic efforts in Southeast Asia, China and India preserve the status quo in their immediate neighbourhood. Meanwhile, they seek more reforms to the global status quo in terms of multilateral trade and monetary policy.
Both have found themselves embedded in organisations such as the SCO and Brics, an emerging collective of countries that, while lacking in overarching policy consistency and economic integration, share a desire to hedge against a Western-led global order, as economics professor Heiwai Tang and I argue in our newly published book, Towards a Future for Brics+.




These efforts could take the form of a more decentralised and multipolar global monetary order, with the euro, Chinese yuan and Japanese yen rising to be alternatives to the US dollar in the reserve currency baskets of various countries.
Clear challenges remain on the road to detente. Despite the richness of exchanges in their ancient histories, the Indian and Chinese peoples are divided by tall mountains, not just literally, but also metaphorically, in terms of mutual perceptions and trust.
The appallingly racist imagery with which some online Chinese influencers ridiculed India during the Covid-19 pandemic and the more recent Indo-Pakistani war speaks to an urgent need for better education and online content moderation by the authorities. Tempering ultranationalism and xenophobia on both sides requires significant political acumen.


Additionally, while disputes over the Line of Actual Control have been shelved for the time being, animosity remains potent over the unsettled territorial disputes. Any attempt to mend the Sino-Indian rift could be easily thwarted by one more flare-up.
Above all, while relations may temporarily sour between India and the US, this does not imply that New Delhi would give up on its long-standing foreign policy of multi-alignment, including strengthening security partnerships with European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, as well as with countries in the Indian Ocean and Africa.
If Chinese and Indian leaders genuinely want to rekindle ties, they should draw upon subnational entities, such as states within India and provinces or autonomous regions within China, to enhance commercial, technological, educational and sociocultural ties. This approach could allow for more engagement.
Hong Kong has a critical role to play in bridging the gaps. With its sizeable Indian diaspora, which includes many permanent residents, and common law jurisdiction, Hong Kong should take up the mantle of bridging the two giants.


What China really means when it says it’s being ‘strategic’

Trump signs bill targeting China’s Russia energy imports days before Xi’s US visit

China pushes back against US sanctions bill targeting Russia’s top energy buyers

Will ‘transactional’ America assist India in a future border crisis with China?

China-India relations

China and India may be on same page but can they start a new chapter?

Illustration: Craig Stephens

Workers pack vehicle parts at an auto component factory in Rajkot, India, on April 3. Photo: Reuters

Tibet mega dam is China’s chance to build confidence with India

An aerial view of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which becomes the Brahmaputra River as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states. The dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo has prompted concern about its environmental impact. Photo: Getty Images

Premier Li Qiang (second from right) attends a groundbreaking ceremony of the Yarlung Tsangpo mega dam in Nyingchi city, southeast of the Tibet autonomous region, where the project is located. Photo: CCTV

Can Russia, India and China work together to stabilise Asia?

Illustration: Stephen Case

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar shake hands during a news conference following their talks in Moscow on November 8, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Has India really become Trump’s top target in Asia?

Supporters of India’s main opposition Congress party burn an effigy of US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a protest against the Trump administration’s 25 per cent tariff on all Indian goods. Photo: Zuma Press Wire/dpa

All-out thaw: can India and China unfreeze icy ties at last?

Illustration: Huy Truong

Indian and Chinese troops greet each other along the Line of Actual Control near the Karakoram Pass on October 31, 2024. Photo: Indian Army/AFP

Visitors tour the India pavilion at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation International Investment and Trade Expo in Qingdao, China, on July 18. Photo: Xinhua

US President Donald Trump displays a signed executive order imposing tariffs on imported goods at the White House on April 2. Photo: AFP

China’s Premier Li Qiang (left) talks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) during a plenary session of the Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 7. Photo: AFP

A woman harvests ripened rice in a paddy field in India’s Maharashtra state. China’s appetite for Indian rice, spices and oilseeds is rising. Photo: Reuters

An Indian man walks past a jewellery shop in Mumbai on Thursday. Typical Indian exports like jewellery may not be easy to sell to China. Photo: EPA

A Tata Motors EV (right) drives past heritage cars and buildings in Kolkata, India, in January. Photo: AFP

Indian soldiers stand on a snow-covered road near the border with China in 2021. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

The Yarlung Tsangpo River. China’s construction of a mega dam on the river has stoked anxieties downstream in India. Photo: China News Service/VCG/Getty Images

Will India’s Modi attend China’s World War II victory parade? What would it mean at home?

Troops take part in a military parade during celebrations marking 70 years of the People’s Republic of China in 2019. Commentators say Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to attend China’s World War II victory parade in September. Photo: Xinhua

Opinion

China Opinion

Asia Opinion

News

World

Asia

South Asia

Diplomacy

China

From strengthening trade to forging a multipolar global order, Beijing and New Delhi must capitalise on shared interests to overcome obstacles to detente


From strengthening trade to forging a multipolar global order, Beijing and New Delhi must capitalise on shared interests to overcome obstacles to detente.


India

China-India border dispute

China trade

Trade

US-ally trade wars

Hong Kong

United States

Xi Jinping

Narendra Modi

Donald Trump

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


China and India may be on same page but can they start a new chapter?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From strengthening trade to forging a multipolar global order, Beijing and New Delhi must capitalise on shared interests to overcome obstacles to detente

From strengthening trade to forging a multipolar global order, Beijing and New Delhi must capitalise on shared interests to overcome obstacles to detente