India and China have been at loggerheads for a couple of months and relations between the two Asian giants have been deteriorating since May this year. In a development, which will hurt China like anything, India and Taiwan are considering getting engaged in a formal trade deal.
Here it is important to note that India and Taiwan have already signed a bilateral investment agreement in 2018. It’s also important to note that India and Taiwan do not maintain formal diplomatic relations, however, India-Taiwan trade ties have expanded in recent times and Taiwanese firms are prominent investors in India.
Taiwan is continuously approaching India for such trade deals for several years, however, the Indian government has been reluctant to move ahead because it was respecting the ‘One China’ policy and didn’t want to sour relations with China. However, now the equations have been changed completely.
Recently, the Indian government has given approvals to several Taiwanese firms like Foxconn Technology Group, Wistron Corp., and Pegatron Corp. as it is looking to attract investment worth more than 10.5 trillion rupees ($143 billion) for smartphone production over five years under ‘Aatmnirbhar Bharat’ campaign, which started after getting into a spat with China.
Well, as expected, it didn’t go down well with China. Upon getting this news on Tuesday, China asked India to approach ties with Taiwan “prudently and properly” and expressed that it would “firmly oppose” any official exchanges between New Delhi and Taipei.
It seems China has has forgot that India is a sovereign Nation, and it didn’t work as per diktats of a Communist nation like China. India has every right to work with any nation and to sign trade deals with any nation. China should learn this now and have to deal with it.
