Balanced India-China economic relations cannot happen without balanced centre-state relations in India
Author Archives: Jabin T. Jacob
A ‘Global Community’ with Chinese Characteristics
The Chinese Party-state’s regime interests and worldviews do not allow for the kind of global community that Beijing claims to support.
Ishiba Meets Trump: A Diplomatic Win for Japan Under Pressure
Originally published as Chisako T. Masuo and Jabin T. Jacob, ‘Ishiba-Trump meet a diplomatic win for Japan’, Deccan Herald, 24 February 2025. By mid-February, United States’ new president Donald Trump had invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White …
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Indian Foreign Secretary’s Visit to Beijing Underlines New Delhi’s Limited Options
Originally published as ‘Vikram Misri’s Beijing visit underlines India’s limited options’, Deccan Herald, 4 February 2025. At the end of January, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited China in the latest step in an unfolding thaw in the bilateral relationship. It should be clear, however, from the statements put out by each side on the meeting …
For China, Age is More than a Number
Originally published as ‘For China, Age is More than a Number’, India’s World, 9 December 2024. On one of his state visits to Egypt in the 1990s, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin is said to have discovered that the Egyptians showcased their civilization as being 5,000 years old. On his return, he ordered that Chinese …
Doval-Wang SR Talks: Back to the Grind
Originally published as, ‘Two steps forward, one step back’, The Indian Express, 21 December 2024. p.11. Published online as ‘On India-China ties, Delhi takes one step forward, two steps back’. While Indian statements on the bilateral relationship with China are exercises in brevity, Chinese statements are more expansive by comparison. Taken together, however, they provide …
New India-China Patrolling Agreement: More Questions from Kazan
Originally published as, ‘Path to normalisation of India-China ties not easy’, Deccan Herald, 26 October 2024. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held “their first proper bilateral meeting at delegation level in nearly five years” on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.[1] Coming in the wake of an announcement earlier …
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A Patrolling Agreement and Some Questions
Originally published as ‘An agreement, some questions’ The Indian Express, 23 October 2024. p.11. Published online as ‘India-China agreement is welcome — but we don’t know enough’. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikrim Misri announced on Monday that India and China had reached “an agreement … on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control…leading to disengagement …
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Xi Jinping’s civilizational claims: foreign policy strategy and domestic panacea
It is important not to dismiss Xi Jinping’s reference to China as “a great country with a great civilization” as nothing more than domestic grandstanding.
Thinking about China in India 