Don’t Trust The Dragon: China’s Games With India And Pakistan Exposed

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Last Updated:June 30, 2025, 07:00 IST

From Galwan to Qingdao, New Delhi’s message is clear: no compromise on terror, no blind trust in Beijing

An expansionist, and an aggressor during the Galwan stand-off for four years. Then saying, let’s be friends, opening the Kailash Mansarovar route after six years, and de-escalating on the border. But now, siding with Pakistan and trying to whitewash the Pahalgam terror attack. That is China, the dragon that clearly cannot be trusted.

There is a brewing storm between India, China, and Pakistan— one that unfolded not on the battlefield, but at a conference table in Qingdao, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign a key statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, or the SCO, because of no mention of the Pahalgam terror attack in it.

While China and Pakistan teamed up trying to water down the language of the statement — India walked out. Singh gave a stark message to Chinese Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun later at bilateral meet — “don’t add new complexities in the relationship". The Galwan clash of 2020 still evokes strong emotions in India — the underlying message is don’t trust the dragon, at least not blindly.

One must remember — unlike QUAD and BRICS, the SCO is a multilateral block that India doesn’t fully trust. It sees it more like a Pakistan and China club. Later this year, PM Narendra Modi is still expected to visit China for the annual SCO summit. India is playing a careful game. It hasn’t quit SCO, but it’s drawing clear red lines.

CHINA’S GAMES

India has taken special note of Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s three-day visit to China (May 19–21), shortly after Operation Sindoor. In talks with the Chinese side, Pakistan’s focus was on strengthening strategic ties with China and extending CPEC into Afghanistan under the BRI framework — a cause for worry for India.

In another diplomatic theatre, the BRICS, China is showing its true colours too. Chinese President Xi Jinping has dropped out of attending the BRICS Summit in Brazil in July, apparently because Brazil has invited PM Modi for a state dinner. Xi thought he would be upstaged by Modi, and the optics would mean Xi looking like a ‘supporting actor’ and not the central player, said a news report.

Remember how China blocked Masood Azhar’s terror designation in the UN. Pakistan used an array of Chinese-made weapons during the conflict with India – including J-10 fighters. China has promised to supply Pakistan with 40 more J-35 A jets and long-range air defense systems. Meanwhile, Modi-Xi ties have remained strained since the 2020 border clashes, despite a meeting in October 2024.

So, should India trust China at all? Especially, when it tries to shifts focus to Balochistan and paint it as a victim of foreign sabotage. With its $62 billion CPEC project threatened by Baloch insurgency, Beijing is trying to internationalise Balochistan as a conflict zone—while sidestepping Uyghur repression and its own terror hypocrisy.

MIXED SIGNALS

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong was in New Delhi earlier this month and finalised agreements with India to resume direct flights and hold functional talks on trade and rare earths —part of efforts to stabilise economic relations. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra has also resumed with the first batch of Indian pilgrims already in Tibet.

India has its own plans to develop capacity in rare earths that is making China nervous as well since it has a virtual global monopoly over the same.

To sum it up, the Indo-China relationship is complicated where mistrust runs deep despite recent positives — Pakistan and terrorism is the elephant in the room.

Aman Sharma

Aman Sharma, Executive Editor - National Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over two decades of experience in covering the wide spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Office....Read More

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