Before US President Donald Trump’s tariff testiness, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin was supposed to be a routine affair — handshakes, platitudes, and carefully choreographed photo-ops. But as the tariff war against India escalated, and New Delhi stood firm as a rock, the Chinese internet gave a grudging nod to India’s diplomatic high-wire act. While official headlines in Beijing followed prescribed formulas, it was clear from the buzz that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s presence, after a seven-year gap, was a calculated gambit in the great power game.

The Chinese internet dissected Modi’s visit with the precision of a surgeon and the paranoia of a spymaster, noting PM Modi’s absence from China’s once-in-a-decade military parade that celebrates a victory against Japan and the avoidance of a special banquet or even a grand tour, even as he extended a cautious olive branch to China at the negotiating table. This caught nervous admiration in China. They called it a tightrope walk between defiance and pragmatism, a “masterful diplomatic manoeuvre” that left Beijing to decode the subtext, especially since Modi landed in China........

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