The Real Problem Underlying India-China Tensions

Noema Magazine reports on a fundamental asymmetry at the heart of India-China relations, identified by journalist Pallavi Aiyar: China doesn't think of India with the same strategic intensity that India thinks of China. While Beijing views India as a significant but secondary regional player, New Delhi orbits China's gravitational pull—its military procurement decisions, infrastructure plans, and strategic calculations all shaped by the country to its north. The economic gap has widened dramatically; China's GDP is now nearly five times India's. But Aiyar argues the real barrier isn't economics or even border disputes—it's a historical misunderstanding rooted in colonialism. Younger Chinese generations, she writes, now view India's Western partnerships through a colonial lens: as repeating the role of Ah San, a derogatory term from when Sikh colonial enforcers policed Shanghai. That historical wound shapes how Beijing interprets India's every strategic move.

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