The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in New Delhi for talks on Friday. They were the most high-level talks since border conflicts two years ago caused tension in relations with China and the nukes-armed Asian giants.
Here is an update on the present state of India-China relations.
TROUBLED BORDER RIVALRY
Many Indian troops are still deployed across India’s remote border to China across China’s Himalayan winter deserts in Ladakh, where hand-to-hand fighting started in June.
At around twenty Indians and 4 Chinese troops were shot dead in an incident inside Ladakh’s Galwan valley, the first fatal crash between nuclear-armed neighbors in several decades.
Their unmarked border of 3,500 kilometers has been largely tranquil since the war on borders in 1962. Both countries continue to claim large areas of their respective territories.
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Following the Galwan confrontation, military officers held over a dozen sessions of talks to end the standoff in Ladakh; however, the progress has been slow.
In February, following multiple military talks, Indian and Chinese troops finished a pullout of an area of lakes in Ladakh. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, agreed to establish the hotline a few days later.
Beijing has repeatedly stated that the border disputes do not reflect the entire China-India relationship; however, New Delhi has maintained that peace at the border is vital for the two nations to work together.
New Delhi has numerous other worries about China’s activities in nearly all India’s neighbors.
Apart from the tensions in the Himalayas, India’s distrust is rooted in Beijing’s backing of the old adversary Pakistan and the rivalry to influence Nepal and concern about China’s influence on the economic scene in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.
INVESTMENTS AND APP BANS
China is India’s biggest trading partner as bilateral trade has increased rapidly since the century. It was $95.02 billion by the end of 2021/22.
Trade remains heavily tilted in China’s favor. China’s deficit in trade with China is the biggest it has with any country, and the gap is steadily increasing.
More than 100 Chinese firms that include state-owned enterprises are operating in India, including electronics makers that have dominated the market for mobile phones in India.
Since 2020, New Delhi has tightened the screws for Chinese players operating in Asia’s third-largest economy, intensifying scrutiny of investment or imports and banning specific mobile applications.
The Indian government has previously blocked investments worth billions of dollars from Beijing; however, this week, the government announce the approvals of 66 plans from neighboring countries, including China totaling $1.79 billion were given.
In the last month, India also blocked access to various Chinese apps due to security concerns, pushing the number of restricted mobile apps to over 300.
