By Zarak Khan | 2025-09-10

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, August 31-September 1 has sparked significant debate in India.

Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to be "partners, not rivals," but analysts say that deep-seated mistrust and Beijing's assertive posture may undermine any meaningful thaw in relations.

A wide chasm still

Modi's visit, his first to China in seven years, came amid ongoing concerns over China's military presence along the Himalayan border and its expanding regional influence.

The strategic chasm between the two nations remains wide, analysts say.

India's actions within the SCO have heightened Chinese concerns about its long-term commitment to the grouping.

At the SCO defense ministers' meeting in June in Qingdao, China, India declined to sign the joint statement, which it considered too pro-Pakistani.

At the leaders' summit two months later, the two countries still had their differences.

India refused to endorse the regional connectivity project under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The BRI is a Chinese initiative to build global infrastructure that will funnel poor countries' raw materials to China.

"Connectivity that bypasses sovereignty ultimately loses both trust and meaning," Modi said during the summit.

China disgruntled

Modi's views did not sit well in Beijing.

State-backed Chinese commentators accused India of acting as a pawn in Western alliances, particularly those involving the United States.

"India still regards China as a 'hypothetical adversary,' and the impulse to ‘align with the United States to counter China' has not disappeared," said Zhang Jiadong, a professor at Fudan University and director of its Center for South Asian Studies, in an analysis on China.com.

India still takes part in the US-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and works with countries such as Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines to counterbalance China's influence, he said.

While Modi's visit to China was significant, it was confined to the SCO framework, showing "clear strategic reservations" in India, he said.

Modi did not attend the September 3 Victory Day parade in Beijing, a major event where China showcased its military strength alongside allies such as Russia and North Korea.

Not writing off the West

Modi's decision was deliberate, "leaving room for future reconciliation with the US," commentator Antara Ghosal Singh wrote for the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.

Others noticed a crucial stop by Modi before he arrived in China.

New Delhi appeared "careful to balance Modi's visit to China with a prior stop in Quad partner Japan," the US think tank Stimson Center said in September.

In Tokyo, the two sides "outlined extensive cooperation and expressed concern over Chinese coercion, albeit without naming Beijing," the center continued.

Pressure at home

India and China share a 3,380km-long border but not harmoniously.

Their troops clashed over a portion of it along Ladakh region, India, in 2020. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed.

The unresolved border dispute and the deadly 2020 fighting cast a long shadow over Sino-Indian ties, say analysts.

Just a week after the Modi-Xi meeting, Indian Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Anil Chauhan described the border dispute with China as India's "biggest [security] challenge."

Meanwhile, the Indian opposition is alert for any signs of backing down by Modi.

Modi's meeting with Xi "must be evaluated" in the context of the Sino-Indian combat in 2020, Jairam Ramesh, an Indian opposition leader, said on X.

The Modi government "pushed forward on reconciliation with China, de facto legitimising their territorial aggression," he wrote.

He questioned whether the "new normal" for India-China ties was to be defined by "Chinese aggression and bullying."