China’s envoy to India has said Beijing “firmly stands with India” and denounced the US as a “bully” for imposing a 50 per cent tariff on New Delhi, in the latest sign of warning ties between the long hostile Asian giants.
China’s ambassador Xu Feihong made the remarks following a series of high-levels talks between Indian and Chinese officials, seemingly pushed together by a shared trade adversary in US president Donald Trump.
It came a day after the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi concluded a two-day trip to India, his first in three years, where he met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
“The United States has imposed tariffs of up to 50 per cent on India and it has even threatened for more. China firmly opposes this,” Mr Xu said Thursday. “China will firmly stand with India to uphold the multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organisation at its core.”
He criticised the US for using tariffs as “a bargaining chip to demand exorbitant prices from various countries” despite getting benefits from free trade.
“In the face of such acts, silence or compromise only emboldens the bully,” he said.
The Chinese diplomat was speaking in a panel event in New Delhi ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit set to take place later this month in China’s Tianjin. Mr Modi is expected to visit China for the summit and meet Xi Jinping, in his first trip to the country in seven years.
The two countries have spent years trying to improve ties after the deadly 2020 clash between soldiers at their shared Himalayan border.
But those efforts have dramatically accelerated after the Trump administration said it would impose punitive measures against India for buying discounted Russian oil. India has also held high-level talks with Russia, with its foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
Mr Xu said friendship between China and India benefits the region as a whole, calling them the “double engines of economic growth in Asia”.
“India and China unity benefits the world at large. India and China have the responsibility to take the lead in promoting an equal and orderly multipolar world,” he said.
He said China would welcome any Indian commodities diverted away from the US into the Chinese market. A Russian envoy in Delhi made similar remarks about his country earlier this week.
Highlighting the progress made on the border issue, Mr Xu said the two countries have reached a 10-point consensus and two groups would be set up: one to finally agree the delimitation of their disputed border, and another for the management of border areas.
During the talks earlier this week between Mr Wang and Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval, the two countries agreed to resume direct flights for the first time since 2020, step up trade and investment flows, and resolve the border issue.
“Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” Mr Modi posted on X after meeting Mr Wang.
