Dear reader,

This week’s newsletter is going out on early Friday morning Beijing time. I usually send it between Tuesday and Thursday: Do you have a preference for a day? Do you care if the newsletter comes at exactly the same time each week? If you have thoughts, please let me know by replying to this email (or writing to jeremy@99words.com).

Two recommendations this week:

• Has Trump gone soft on China—a ChinaFile Conversation that I worked on.

• China watching in Chinese—A guide to Chinese-language analysis of Chinese politics by the Asia Society’s Shengyu Wang (now added to our guide on how to stay informed about China)

—Jeremy Goldkorn

Continental moves

China embraces India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Xi in Tibet

On August 6, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would double tariffs on India to 50%, allegedly* to penalize Delhi for purchasing Russian oil. On August 18, Chinese Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 arrived in New Delhi for a short visit, during which he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar—for only the second time since 2020 when deadly clashes in the Galwan valley in Ladakh, a disputed Himalayan border region, led to a complete breakdown of ties between the countries.

Official statements from both Beijing and Delhi have been positive, and included sunny statements about bilateral trade. In the Chinese readout of the meeting, Wang Yi calls India a “major power.” As Manoj Kewalramani notes, “It’s not customary for the Chinese side to refer to India as a ‘major power,’ a designation usually “held specifically for the U.S., Russia, and Europe.”

Wang Yi also confirmed that Modi will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, which Vladimir Putin will probably join.

The takeaway: “Chinese readouts signal a cautious thaw,” say state-affiliated commenters Fred Gao and Gao Xirui. And as the U.S. retreats from its global role and engages in erratic acts of hostility such as the new tariffs on India, we can expect China’s relationship with many other countries ti improve.

Other news from the neighborhood:

• After leaving India, Wang Yi traveled to Kabul to attend for the Sixth Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue between Afghanistan, China, and Pakistan. He also met Afghan Prime Minister Muhammad Hasan Akhund. Wang said “Beijing was keen on exploring and mining