Skip to main content

Imports from China rise from 14.6% to 18.3% in a year: Failure to retaliate the aggressor?

Amidst Government of India seeking to retaliate Chinese aggression of Ladakh by banning mobile apps in order to create an anti-China sentiment among people, an official Chinese site has claimed that not only India’s “radical” scholars are misleading India on its northern neighbour, "Chinese products took 18.3 percent of India's total imports from April to September 2020, up from 14.6 percent in the same period in 2019..."
Reproduced below is the article by Liu Zongyi, secretary-general of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, visiting fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China and distinguished fellow of the China (Kunming) South Asia & Southeast Asia Institute, published in Global Times:
***
Some Indian scholars recently suggested that India should play the "Tibet card," cooperate with the US on the Tibet question and use it to contain or publicly oppose China.
For example, Indian geostrategist Brahma Chellaney on January 13 said that "America's Tibet law should spur New Delhi to reclaim lost leverage on China," suggesting that New Delhi should "stop endorsing China's stance on Tibet." Former Indian diplomat Deepak Vohra on January 9 even wrote in an article that "If Tibet goes its own way, China will either break up or dump Communism, and the world will be a safer place."
Tibet is a part of Chinese territory, and the Indian government has recognized this for a long time. If New Delhi follows the advice of these scholars, China-India relations will be completely broken. New Delhi will be instigating a war. In fact, India has not given up playing the "Tibet card" to make troubles for China, or gain benefits for itself. The so-called Tibetan government-in-exile is hosted in India, and the Tibet question is a major crux of China-India relations.
But currently, even some top Indian strategic elites do not have a profound understanding of the actual Tibet question. By playing the "Tibet card," some Indian people want to force China to recognize Kashmir as a part of India. They have never realized how sensitive the Tibet question is for China-India relations. These people are playing with fire.
In fact, China can make many countermoves if it wants to. But generally, we disdain to use these measures. For example, Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory. China will not unilaterally recognize that it is a part of India as New Delhi hopes. This is, in fact, a very unreasonable request. Besides, India itself has many thorny issues, such as religious issues and the armed separatist factions in Northeast India. Beijing disdains to put pressure on New Delhi with these issues.
Many opinions of these Indian scholars are in line with the US' political position. With India's national strength, it cannot win in a war to oppose China. India needs to think this matter over: What benefits will it get if it collaborates with the US to create troubles for China? In the end, New Delhi will only be pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for Washington. India will find itself a cannon fodder at last.
In addition to playing the "Tibet card," Chellaney and some other Indian scholars have tried to follow the US' suit to oppose China in other aspects; such as the economic decoupling with China. Chellaney, who has always made harsh and extreme remarks against China, said in December 2020 that, "another likely dimension of India's new China strategy will be to pursue a managed and selective economic decoupling."
In fact, India has been trying to implement such a strategy for the past year. In April 2020, India tightened investment rules for companies in neighboring countries to prevent "opportunistic takeovers." After the Galwan Valley clash last June, India started its series of acts against China. This egregiously included banning Chinese apps in the country.
And look at the results. Chinese products took 18.3 percent of India's total imports from April to September 2020, up from 14.6 percent in the same period in 2019, according to India's Department of Commerce. If China does not export to India, some related industries in India may die. Chellaney and his likes are completely irresponsible, lying through their teeth. Chellaney has been using anti-China gimmicks to gain attention.
Whether it is the "Tibet card" or economic decoupling with China, these Indian scholars are just playing the role of some forces' microphone. They have created such kind of public opinion internationally and in India. This has done great harm to China-India relations.
We need to pay more attention to the unsavory elements behind them. These forces look forward to the complete breakdown of China-India relations. Speaking for these forces, the above-mentioned Indian scholars preach a blind arrogance about India. And India is now being led astray by such sentiments and extreme forces of Hindu nationalism.

Comments

TRENDING

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

  By Rajiv Shah   This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan*  “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah  Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative   A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan*  A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey*  ​In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah   A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.