Advertisement
India
OpinionLetters

Letters | The China-India message from Tianjin: perpetual hostility is unsustainable

Readers discuss the Xi-Modi meeting, and restrictions on mobiles on the dashboards of Hong Kong taxis

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during the welcoming ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin on August 31. Photo: Indian Press Information Bureau/ AFP)
Letters
Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin on August 31 may not have resulted in bold declarations, but it signified quiet recalibration.
It was a calculated attempt to stabilise one of Asia’s most consequential – and combustible – relationships. The leaders of two nuclear-armed powers, which had gone to war in 1962, had a bloody clash in the Galwan Valley in 2020 and whose relations are characterised by decades of mistrust, sat across the table to test whether competition could be managed rather than allowed to spiral.
Advertisement

Modi’s first visit to China since 2018 carried strategic weight. Months of quiet diplomacy prepared the ground. The leaders discussed border tensions, trade and connectivity. Modi pointed to concrete shifts: relative peace along the Himalayan frontier, the resumption of the politically charged Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, and plans to restart direct commercial flights – small steps, but telling ones.

Xi’s language was careful but deliberate, implicitly reflecting Beijing’s own strategic reality: persistent hostility with India weakens China’s regional posture at a time of slowing growth and a costly rivalry with Washington.

Advertisement

US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs of up to 50 per cent on Indian goods jolted New Delhi. US protectionism revealed how transactional the partnership is. Beijing seized the moment: its envoy in New Delhi alluded to Washington as a “bully”, offering rhetorical solidarity and subtle leverage for India in its delicate balancing act between the United States, Russia and China.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x