Some television news anchors and bristling retired army brass seem to be itching for a border skirmish, if not war, with troops of China’s People’s Liberation Army massed along India’s 3,488 km unsettled border with China stretching across almost uninhabited terrain from Kashmir in the north-west, to Arunachal Pradesh in the north-east. But the national interest demands that the Union ministry of external affairs and our allegedly excellent diplomatic corps pull out all stops to ensure that peace breaks out between the world’s two most populous countries.

The under-reported paradox of Sino-India relations is that economic engagement and trade between our two countries is growing continuously and is at an all-time high of $135.98 billion. In 2022, the value of goods imported by India from China aggregated a prodigious $118.5 billion (Rs.9.6 lakh crore), 8.4 percent higher than in the previous year. On the other hand, our exports to China were valued at a mere $17.48 billion.
Amazingly, despite hostile relations between our two countries, India Inc’s trade gap with China has widened to an unprecedented $101 billion, 45 percent higher than in 2021. Major imports from China are APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), chemicals, electrical and mechanical machinery, auto components, and medical supplies. The stark truth is that with 68 percent of APIs and 60 percent of smartphone components emanating from China, in the event of a new Sino-India war, our pharma industry could collapse and electrical and telecom industries would be severely damaged.

In the circumstances, the best course of action for the BJP government at the Centre is to drop its aggressive muscular stance and initiate meaningful border settlement negotiations with our giant Asian neighbour with whom we maintained harmonious relations for over two millennia until the border war of 1962. It’s surprising that the BJP leadership which has often expressed contempt for the Congress party’s Nehruvian political and economic legacy, is perpetuating Nehru’s obstinate vacillation and is reluctant to negotiate a border settlement with the Xi Jinping administration, and settle this issue once and for all.