India

Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan analyses the outcomes of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Uzbekistan and the implications of China’s perceived stronger courting of the Central Asia region.

China seems to be pulling back while Russia wants to take a step forward, as seen from the Xi-Putin parlay at their meeting in Uzbekistan. But the delicate dance is not only at the surface level of the Ukraine war, but China’s deeper strategic goals in Central Asia, where Russia considers itself a dominant power.

After more than two years since the start of the pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping will resume making diplomatic visits overseas with his Central Asia tour this month. The geopolitical situation has vastly transformed during his physical absence in the international arena. Zaobao correspondent Yang Danxu explores the implications of these changes.

Beijing is keen that Delhi should express support for PRC’s territorial sovereignty over Taiwan. For India, though, the unresolved Sino-Indian boundary dispute and their ongoing military standoff force a reality check in this relationship. In the absence of a Chinese reciprocal one-India policy, Delhi is messaging that while it will not bandwagon with pro-Taiwan forces, a new template of Sino-Indian ties is required.

As the deepening US-China conflict over Taiwan generates widespread concern in Asia and the world, India’s new ambiguities on the "one China" policy, as well as the nuances of Delhi’s engagement with Taipei, have come into sharp relief. As India’s boundary tensions with China persist, Delhi’s navigation between the logic of expanding ties with Taipei and the dangers of further deterioration of bilateral relations with Beijing has become more challenging.

While the last thing it wants is to be caught up in the crosshairs of US-China competition, Nepal is in the spotlight with the recent passing in the Nepali parliament of the US$500 million MCC-Nepal compact with the US. The US and Nepal have both denied that this grant is tied to the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy, but China is riled up as India watches closely.

The recent NATO summit in Madrid seems to indicate that NATO is making a comeback in full force. For China, painted as presenting “systemic challenges” to NATO, this should sound a warning that when the time is ripe for the US to contain China, key countries in the Asia-Pacific and the EU will not be on its side.

Over the past several years, Chinese private firms have ferociously invested in India’s tech start-ups. Initially welcomed, China’s diversion of interest from erstwhile US investment has been viewed with some measure of suspicion since the Galwan Valley conflict. Are we living in a world where investment patterns are determined by statecraft? ISAS academic Karthik Nachiappan examines the issue.

Chinese academic Zhang Jingwei notes that while US President Joe Biden has cast a wider net in building alliances compared with his predecessors, much of these frameworks are lacking in substance. Will the US be able to benefit from them and use them against its strategic rival China?