China’s churlish reaction to Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi this week suggests the US president and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, are on to something important in trying to remake the global geostrategic map.
One official Chinese commentary called Mr Obama’s three-day trip — the first time a US president has visited India twice while in office — and his newfound friendship with Mr Modi a “superficial rapprochement . . . given their hard differences on issues like climate change, agricultural disputes and nuclear energy co-operation”.
That prompted one senior US official to say drily it was “notable” that Beijing should go out of its way to comment on the Obama trip. Another officially sanctioned article in Beijing, meanwhile, accused the west of plotting craftily to lure India into a needless confrontation with China.