China envoy warns silence on US tariffs emboldens ‘bully’, pledges support for India

In one of Beijing’s strongest endorsements of India on a trade dispute, Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong on August 21 declared that China “firmly opposes” the United States’ decision to impose a 50% tariff on Indian goods, warning that silence or compromise in the face of such actions would “only embolden the bully.”

Speaking at a dialogue hosted by New Delhi think tanks, Xu lashed out at Washington for “using tariffs as a bargaining chip to demand exorbitant prices” from other nations. “The US has long reaped benefits of free trade, but now it resorts to protectionism. China will firmly stand with India to uphold the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core,” he asserted.

Xu positioned India and China as natural allies against what he termed “hegemony, protectionism, power politics and bullying,” insisting that the two Asian giants must lead efforts to build an “equal and orderly multipolar world.” He stressed that unity between Beijing and New Delhi was not just strategic, but vital for the Global South, adding: “China-India unity benefits the world at large… When we join hands, there is great hope for the democratisation of international relations.”

The envoy pointed to recent high-level engagements — including Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Delhi earlier this week — as signs of a thaw, and expressed confidence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming trip to Tianjin for the SCO Summit would “inject new impetus” into bilateral ties.

Acknowledging the fraught history of border disputes, Xu said, “There may be many challenges ahead, but the direction of development should be clear—unity and cooperation is our only option.”

Meanwhile, Beijing expressed “surprise” at India’s clarification on External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s remarks regarding the One-China policy during talks with Wang Yi. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning accused “some people in India” of undermining China’s sovereignty on Taiwan and warned that such actions could impede the improvement of relations.