{
  "id": 13287239,
  "title": "Modi and Xi can’t bridge the India-China divide by themselves",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/modi-and-xi-cant-bridge-the-india-china-divide-by-themselves",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-10T01:30:04.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "South China Morning Post",
    "slug": "south-china-morning-post",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3370033/modi-and-xi-cant-bridge-india-china-divide-themselves"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the past month, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India for the Brics summit, his first visit in seven years. During the meeting, the two leaders discussed topics of mutual interest, including the potential benefits of open-weight artificial intelligence. However, despite these positive exchanges, news outlets soon published pessimistic headlines, highlighting the significant divide between the two nations. Reports emphasized China's dominant manufacturing sector in comparison to India's, and Delhi's renaming of 28 sites in the disputed region of Ladakh near the Line of Actual Control. For experts on India-China relations, these developments are not unexpected. While top leaders exchange comforting words, it often takes time for these statements to influence policy decisions. The challenges to improving relations, particularly concerning territorial disputes, are numerous. Experts suggest that strategic frameworks greatly differ between the two nations. While the Chinese government perceives border issues as secondary to other aspects of the bilateral relationship, Indian officials view border disputes as the most crucial factor in negotiations with China. Despite various summits and initiatives, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Brics bloc, a considerable level of mistrust persists between the two countries' bureaucratic systems, fueled by past events like the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. A 2024 survey revealed that 89% of surveyed urban youth in India saw the border conflict with China as the biggest challenge to India's foreign policy. Similarly, a Tsinghua University poll found that over 50% of Chinese respondents held an unfavorable view of India. Furthermore, people-to-people exchanges were significantly hindered during the Covid-19 pandemic, with direct flights between the countries suspended for five years and visa restrictions limiting scholarly and student exchanges. Nationalist propaganda has exacerbated these issues, spreading misinformation and fostering unhelpful stereotypes. Despite these obstacles, both leaders can play a role in fostering trust. First, improving people-to-people exchanges by lowering visa restrictions and travel barriers is crucial. India could reintroduce tourist and conference e-visas, and issue longer-term, multi-entry visas to Hong Kong passport holders. China should also ease restrictions on Indian journalists, as accurate reporting is preferable to an information vacuum that fuels speculation. If these measures prove successful, India should allow Chinese applicants to use India's tourist and conference e-visas, and China should streamline business visa applications for executives, engineers, and technical specialists. Second, China must acknowledge that its widening trade deficit in India's favor damages its image. To bridge policy gaps and address mistrust, Chinese and Indian officials could establish comparable working groups and bilateral dialogue mechanisms, similar to the China-US Boards of Trade and Investment. The Indian Ministries of Commerce and Electronics and Information Technology could collaborate with their Chinese counterparts on this issue. In return, China should enforce stricter regulations on overseas excesses by its private enterprises and encourage technology exchanges in non-sensitive sectors like automobiles, solar panels, and lithium batteries. Reviving the two joint industrial parks in Gujarat and Maharashtra could demonstrate that Chinese investments in India benefit the wider community. Lastly, China and India should collaborate on global public goods for the Global South, focusing on areas such as pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and food. By avoiding strategic chokepoints, entrepreneurs from both nations can work together on projects that benefit emerging economies. Sub-national entities, like individual Indian states and Chinese provinces, can also contribute to these national-level efforts. By taking these steps, both countries have the potential to overcome their differences and foster a more trusting relationship.",
  "summary": "Last month, President Xi Jinping travelled to New Delhi to attend the Brics summit – his first visit in seven years. On the summit’s sidelines, Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an in-depth conversation that explored topics of shared interest between them, such as leveraging open-weight artificial intelligence (AI) for mutual benefit. Even so, such sanguine signals were soon drowned…",
  "key_points": [
    "Despite positive discussions, significant divide remains between India and China.",
    "China's manufacturing dominance contrasts with India's, complicating relations."
  ],
  "editors_take": "The divide between India and China will likely persist unless their leaders take concrete steps to build trust, starting with improving people-to-people exchanges and addressing trade and policy gaps.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Reuters Business via SCMP",
        "title": "Modi and Xi can’t bridge the India-China divide by themselves",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/modi-and-xi-cant-bridge-the-india-china-divide-by-themselves-13288683",
        "published": "2026-10-10T01:30:04.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}