Needed: A China strategy

India should revisit its business relations with the dragon with enough guardrails

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Relations between India and China over the past several years have been rocky, with the border disputes remaining largely unresolved. At the same time, China has been a big trading partner—the value of bilateral trade was roughly $130 billion in 2024–25.

China was, in fact, India's second-largest trading partner, with the surplus heavily skewed in its favour. India remains critically dependent on China for a range of inputs including active pharmaceutical ingredients. In the last few years since Covid-19, India's policy approach has been to restrict Chinese foreign direct investments, limit the number of work visas, curb procurement of goods, and ban Chinese apps. In fact, some Chinese companies that had stakes in Indian start-ups have offloaded their equity holdings.