India's Biggest Trade Partner Is China. Now what?
5/7/202618 min
China just surpassed the US as India's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $151 billion and a trade deficit that has ballooned to an all-time high of $112 billion. Beijing has also rolled out sweeping new supply chain rules that could penalise companies moving manufacturing out. So what does this mean for India? John Quelch, American President, Executive Vice Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of Social Science, Duke Kunshan University argues the deficit isn't the real story. China plays a long, calculated game — on tariffs, on technology, on geopolitics. India needs to learn to read that game, not react to it. From the Trump-Xi summit to robots, rare earths, and the untapped potential of two ancient civilisations — this conversation reframes everything
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First 90 secondsAnirban Chaudhuri· Host0:00
[upbeat music] In a significant trade in global trade dynamics, China has overtaken the US to become India's largest trading partner in twenty twenty-five, twenty-six, with bilateral trade reaching one fifty-one point one billion dollars and India's trade deficit with Beijing widening to an all-time high of hundred and twelve point one six billion dollars. Now, Beijing is doubling down on its dominance. China's newly announced eighteen-point supply chain regulations, described in state media as an effort to prevent security risks in industrial and supply chains, give regulators sweeping authority to investigate multinationals and potentially penalize companies that move manufacturing out of the country. My guest today, John Quelch, is Executive Vice Chancellor of Duke Kunshan University. He has decades of experience and expertise in global trade and China's economy. In this episode, I talk to John about what it means to have China as India's top trading partner, how Beijing plays the long game on trade and tariffs, what to expect from the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, and where the India-China relationship is headed over the next five years.