A ‘dragon-elephant tango’ may help lift the gloom of Trump’s tariffs, but will it cure the malady of Sino-Indian relations?
Even the 1950s slogan “Hindi-Chini bhai bhai” (India and China are brothers) has been given a fresh, if somewhat awkward, Chinese makeover as the “dragon-elephant tango”. From official statements to media headlines, the phrase is everywhere.
The imagery is as clumsy as the public displays of affection between these perennially hostile nations. It carries the same cloying optimism that once characterised the original “bhai bhai” period that was shattered by the 1962 war on their Himalayan border, not long after the slogan was coined. Sweet words could not overcome the suspicions and contradictions inherent in their relationship.
Sixty years on, mistrust has only deepened, layered with new insecurities and interests, and compounded by the disparity in their strengths and the burden of history.
India’s humiliating defeat in the 1962 war remained an open wound, shaping its approach to China ever since. Both countries have, over time, tried to put it behind them, maintain peace along a de facto border and focus on trade – hoping that good economics might lead, one day, to good politics.
