In a rare show of diplomatic solidarity, China’s ambassador to India publicly condemned the United States’ recent tariffs on Indian goods. The move comes as both Asian powers face mounting trade pressure from Washington.
August 22, 2025: China’s ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, has strongly supported India in light of new U.S. tariffs on Indian exports. This shows how the geopolitical environment is changing. Ambassador Xu said at a talk on Thursday that China “firmly opposes” the Trump administration’s tariffs on India of up to 50%. He also said that China will “firmly stand with India to uphold the multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization at its core.”
The ambassador’s comments come just a few days after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited New Delhi and spoke with Prime Minister Modi and his Indian colleague, S. Jaishankar. The visit was the first by a Chinese foreign minister in three years. It showed that both countries wanted to change the way they interact with each other because of what Wang Yi called “overwhelming bullying” in global commerce.
Ambassador Xu went into more detail about this feeling, saying that countries in the Global South are “very concerned” about how India and China might work together to “help developing countries overcome difficulties.” He also said again that “silence or compromise only emboldens the bully” when the U.S. does things like this.
Beijing’s diplomatic overtures come at a time when India’s exports to China have been steadily rising, with a 20% growth in the first four months of the 2025–26 fiscal year. This rise, which is caused by demand for Indian electronics, petroleum products, and agricultural items, is thought to be a possible way to counter the effects of the U.S. tariffs on the economy.
The two countries have also done things to improve their relationship in other areas. They have decided to look into setting a clear line between their disputed borders by creating two new working groups to deal with border management and delimitation. They have also agreed to reopen trade across the border at three main points and to cooperate on restarting direct flights and visa services.
From August 31 to September 1, Prime Minister Modi will be in Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit. He will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders there. India, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and other countries are all members of the SCO, which is a political, economic, and security group for Eurasia. The Chinese envoy said that the next meeting is “very important” and will give a new boost to relations between the two countries.
The diplomatic and economic signals coming from China show that it is trying to pull India closer to itself by taking advantage of the mounting tensions between New Delhi and Washington over trade and other problems.