Minhaj Merchant’s Column – What Strategy Should We Adopt Between America and China? , Minhaj Merchant column: What strategy should we adopt between America and China?

Minhaj Merchant, Writer, Publisher and Editor

Between 2014 and 2018, Xi Jinping made every effort to remove India from the US geopolitical circle. In September 2014, he did not sit on the swing with Narendra Modi in front of Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad without any reason.

He made two more attempts at the summit in Wuhan in 2008 and Mahabalipuram in 2019. Apart from these temptations, Xi also tried to try the strength. The proof of this was Doklam. But no exercise was used. India remained in the US camp. In 2020, the Galwan incident occurred. It took five years for India-China relations to become normal again.

After all, why does China want to keep India away from the US -led Western alliance? Despite aggressive rhetoric on the Dalai Lama and the dwellings of the names of changing the names of districts in Arunachal Pradesh, Xi knows that India is a third important angle in the triangle developing between the US, China and India.

America also knows this. This is the reason that despite the complications of trade-wore, the Indo-US partnership in the fields of immunity, security and technology has deepened. However, the US may also be worried that India may become the next China.

He knows that today India’s GDP is as much as it was from China in 2008. If India increases its annual GDP growth rate by 8 percent, its economy will quadruple to $ 16 in 18 years- which will be almost equal to China’s economy today.

Of course, India offers different types of challenges and benefits to the US than in China. It is a democratic country unlike China. It has independent media and a transparent judiciary. In many ways, India’s diversity is in line with America.

So American think tanks believe that India will prove to be their ideal ally in a polarized world. But the nature of America is that he keeps thinking about tightening his competitors, whether it is today or from tomorrow.

This is the reason that it used NATO’s slowly growing expansion to surround the post-Soviet Union from the 1990s to 2025. This is the US policy at the core of Russia-Ukraine War. Russia’s economy has been huge restrictions, which has increased its dependence on China.

After weakening its opponent of the Cold War era, now the US has focused its attention to China. But China presents a different type of danger compared to Russia. China’s lead in EV, important minerals and AI challenges American suzerainty.

By 2035, India’s economy will be 8 trillions. Operation Sindoor has shown that India has renounced its pacifying image that has been going on for decades. Now Pakistan-proposed terrorism will compete with military corresponds. It worries America. This is why he uses Pakistan to harass India.

The fear of India-Ulak also bothers Beijing, however for completely different reasons. Like America, China also wants to exploit India’s major consumer market. But India’s growing power knocks it. The fear of China towards powerful India is more immediate than in America.

In such a situation, what should be India’s strategy? India is in a good position as the third angle of the triangle. We can deepen our economic, technical and defense partnership with the US while keeping China away, but can also give Beijing a chance to taste the growing consumer market in India.

Beijing needs to find options at the earliest due to not having a place for major Chinese exports in the US market. ASEAN and EU- are two options. But China is already doing heavy trade with ASEAN, which is limiting its profit.

Here the relations with the EU have deteriorated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. India has some important cards in this geopolitical maze. But to emerge as the major power of the next decade, he would have to take strategic steps.

India is the third angle in the triangle developing between the US, China and India. America knows this. The Indo-US partnership has deepened. However, America is more concerned that India may become the next China. (These are the author’s own views)