Opinion | India could lead a middle-power response to China in the Asia-Pacific

The shock waves of China’s aggressive approach to Asian politics are finally being felt in New Delhi. Since early May, India and China have been locked in battles along their Himalayan border. During ongoing efforts to de-escalate the crisis, the two countries agreed to create buffer zones and suspend border patrols, which some Indian analysts say will undermine New Delhi’s territorial claims in the Ladakh region.

India has long tried to remain non-aligned in Asian geopolitics, despite growing ties with the United States. It has made significant concessions on Tibet and Taiwan and generally treads cautiously in the South China Sea. It has remained silent on Chinese actions in Xinjiang and largely quiet on Hong Kong.

New Delhi has also been careful not to offend Beijing’s sensitivities over its internal politics, sometimes even at the cost of about-turns: in 2016, for instance, prominent dissident leaders from China planned a conference in India to discuss the prospects for democracy in their country. New Delhi facilitated the conference at first, granting visas to the attendants. But following Beijing’s dismay over the event, the Indian government revoked the visas.

India is not the only country presently warding off aggression from Beijing in the region. Take the South China Sea: in early July, Vietnam and the Philippines expressed alarm over Chinese military drills near the Paracel Islands. A few days later, Malaysia said that China had intruded into its international waters as many as 89 times in the last four years.