To demand, or even expect, business as usual in these times is like China saying: Use Chinese firms, allow them to intrude into your countries, or else!

We can probably laugh at the reaction of the spokesperson of Chinese Embassy Counsellor Wang Xiaojian to India not permitting Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE to participate in its 5G trials. This amusing reaction is a cobbling together of a predictable set of words, pulled out from Beijing’s boring playbook, out of tune with the underlying reality, out of sync with growing perceptions, unaware of the global synching around ‘No China in critical infrastructure’: “The Chinese side hopes that India could do more to enhance mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries, and provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory investment and business environment for market entities from all countries, including China, to operate and invest in India.”

The exclusion of Chinese firms in India’s 5G trials, as well as in future rollouts, was a future foretold. To imagine that India will open its most sensitive sector to intrusion from the Chinese Communist Party even as its People’s Liberation Army attempts to grab Indian territory is strategic hubris on Beijing’s part. To view India as its competitor is one thing; to bludgeon that idea into military action takes all discussions and negotiations beyond the pale of civil talks. Here, clubs and fists, tactics and manoeuvres are doing the talking. The only solution is for China to get out. To demand, or even expect, business as usual in these times is like China saying: Use Chinese firms, allow them to intrude into your countries, or else!

Those threats have gone past their use-by date. Xi Jinping wants to be feared by the rest of the world. It worked for a while. But now, even that fear is abating in direct proportion to his illusions of grandeur. Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Teddy Locsin Jr., articulated this in a 3 May 2021 tweet: “China, my friend, how politely can I put it? Let me see… O…GET THE F**K OUT. What are you doing to our friendship? You. Not us. We’re trying. You. You’re like an ugly oaf forcing your attentions on a handsome guy who wants to be a friend; not to father a Chinese province …” These pushbacks will increase. And with them Beijing and the grand supremacy of the Middle Kingdom will turn into a meme.

In its confused state of mind, which in turn is in a state of war within and itching to express it somewhere…anywhere… it seems the CCP has lost its ability to think. In particular, it is unable to read India. It is behaving as an aggrieved party, as though it is surprised by this policy ricochet of Beijing’s actions. For them, this is a diplomatic misdeed. For the rest of the world, this is the right reaction. For those tracking India’s China policy closely, this is a work in progress, a step in India’s evolving critical infrastructure policy with respect to China.