Advertisement
China-India border dispute
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Explainer | China-India tensions: will New Delhi play the Taiwan and Tibet card in its face off with Beijing?

  • First there was a deadly clash in the Himalayas, then New Delhi set its sights on TikTok. Are Taiwan and Tibet next on India’s agenda with China?
  • Border dispute means New Delhi no longer needs to hold off on diplomatic relationship out of fear of upsetting Beijing, observers say

Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses soldiers during a visit to Ladakh after a deadly border clash between Indian and Chinese troops. Photo: AP
Kunal Purohit
As the border stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Himalayas stretches into its 11th week, increasingly loud voices are urging New Delhi to rethink its backing for Beijing’s cherished one-China policy.
Advertisement

The policy, which asserts that both mainland China and Taiwan are parts of the same sovereign nation, is seen by Beijing as the bedrock of its diplomatic relationships and even the suggestion New Delhi may be rethinking its commitment would be a significant raising of the stakes between the two.

Still, a range of voices, from retired diplomats and analysts to Tibetan officials, are urging the government of Narendra Modi to get closer to Taiwan and to use the Tibetan diaspora as a diplomatic foil against increasing Chinese assertiveness.

Analysts say it would be too much of a foreign policy aberration for India to change its position on the one-China policy. But New Delhi could subtly challenge it by stepping up ties with the Taiwanese leadership and the Tibetan community, they add.

BR Deepak, Professor of China and Chinese Studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) said: “I don’t think India will discard its One-China policy. However, India has made it categorical that it will not put it in joint declarations and statements as before.”

Advertisement
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Ladakh after a border clash in which at least 20 Indian troops and an unknown number of Chinese were killed. Photo: EPA
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Ladakh after a border clash in which at least 20 Indian troops and an unknown number of Chinese were killed. Photo: EPA
Earlier this month, India appointed Gourangal Das, a senior diplomat who previously handled relations with the United States, to be its envoy with the self-ruled island. And even before the Galwan Valley clash in June that killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of their Chinese counterparts, two parliamentarians belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attended the May virtual inauguration of the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, for her second term.
Advertisement