'India Can't Rely On US; Improve Ties With Beijing': China Suggests As Joe Biden Admin Delayed Aid

With the U.S. dragging its feet in offering India help to combat the world’s worst virus crisis, China is moving to drive a wedge between the democratic security partners.

In a barrage of editorials, political cartoons and social-media posts in recent days, the Communist Party-backed Global Times newspaper blasted the U.S. for failing to provide aid while calling on India to improve ties with Beijing. Highlighting the desperate situation in Delhi, where hospitals and crematoriums are overwhelmed, it suggested that India can’t rely on the U.S.

“This pandemic shows that the West’s getting closer to India is more in a geopolitical sense,” the Global Times, which serves as a key platform for China to send messages to the world, said in an editorial over the weekend. “Their closeness to each other is fragile and superficial.”

The comments out of China, coupled with the severity of the crisis in India, show how the imbalance in vaccinations between richer and poorer nations has the potential to reshape geopolitics as parts of the world start to reopen. Washington and New Delhi have strengthened ties over the past year amid a border clash in the Himalayas and India’s efforts to attract companies looking to diversify away from China.

President Joe Biden on Sunday met growing calls in India to provide aid, with his administration pledging raw materials for vaccinating and finance to boost production of Covid-19 shots. “Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need,” Biden said in a tweet.

While India welcomed the move, the U.S. action was still seen as coming too late for an administration that has sought to elevate the Quad security partnership that also includes Japan and Australia.

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