- Sunday, January 12, 2025
Former Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said in an editorial that the US’s geopolitical calculations were behind its efforts to improve economic and trade interactions with India but it was doomed to fail.
By: Shubham Ghosh
CHINA’S STATE-OWNED media blasted the US ahead of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington accusing it of “pushing India and ramping up its efforts to harass China’s economic progress”.
Former Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, who is currently the director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, said in an opinion piece in the belligerent Global Times that the US’s geopolitical calculations were behind its efforts to improve economic and trade interactions with India and cautioned that it was “doomed to fail”.
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“This is Modi’s sixth visit to the US since taking over as prime minister in 2014 but his first state visit to the US. As the US seems to ramp up efforts to push India to confront China and harass China’s economic progress, the Financial Times recently warned that Washington’s embrace of Modi carries a price, saying the US’ charm campaign has been noted with dismay by some of India’s elites. They concern that the US attempts to “use India as a bulwark” against China,” the editorial read.
“The US’ geopolitical calculations are not difficult to read. As feared by many Indian elites, Washington’s vigorous efforts to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with India is primarily to slow down China’s economic development. However, this geopolitical calculation of the US is doomed to fail, because China’s position in the global supply chain cannot be replaced by India or other economies,” Wang said.
The editorial piece further said despite growing investments in India by American firms, those “such as Apple, are now inseparable from China’s supply chain”.
“In fact, India’s trade with the US cannot replace its trade with China, nor can India replace China in global supply chains,” the piece said.
“If the US and India want to further develop economic and trade cooperation, they should solve the problems between themselves, rather than targeting China,” it read.
Claiming that the “US pays lip service to India but seldom delivers”, the Global Times editorial advised India “to abandon geopolitical calculation, such as considering joining the US’ reckless and selfish game to contain China” and said that the idea of promoting trade and economic cooperation with China instead “is of great importance for India’s future growth and development”.
Wang’s piece comes at a time when US secretary of state Antony Blinken met Chinese president Xi Jinping, current Chinese foreign Minister Qin Gang and Wang himself on his five-day trip to Beijing.
