India's strategic maturity: How New Delhi is guiding Beijing's geopolitical stance on Tibet

President Xi Jinping’s visit to Tibetan capital Lhasa last week to mark the 60th anniversary of Tibet’s founding as an autonomous region was kept under wraps till the last minute, signalling the unease within Beijing over the vexed issue where a vast exiled community of Tibetans is settled across the Himalayas in India. 

The India-China border dispute is not far removed from the reason why Beijing did not announce in advance that Xi, accompanied by Cai Qi, a top member of China’s politburo standing committee and Wang Huning, a fourth ranking member of the Communist Party, will be visiting the Tibetan Autonomous Region that continues to have strategic concerns for China, given its shared border with India.

“The visit was to demonstrate Beijing’s control in an area where its rule is described as oppressive. While Xi spoke of the need to uphold political and social stability, the visit was short and tempered down to avoid ruffling any more feathers,” said a government official. Later, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Xi and also held talks with Cai Qi, the signalling bore fruit as Beijing demonstrated that it had taken New Delhi’s cue to keep contentious issues away and focus on the tangibles - easing visa rules, reopening border trade, restarting direct flights and reducing India’s trade deficit with China.

Foreign ministry officials view it as a demonstration of New Delhi’s ability to balance its security needs with strategic and economic interests without delinking the border issue. The fact that South Block has carefully manoeuvred its demonstration of strategic autonomy to allow Beijing to follow suit, has allowed it to balance out its Tibet policy on both sides of the Himalayas.

“We have witnessed numerous fluctuations in the global geopolitical landscape. From the brutal killings of Tibetans and unfulfilled promises of reform to the rise of advanced surveillance technologies and colonial-style boarding schools, the Tibetan people have endured profound changes—both within Tibet and in the ways foreign countries respond to the Tibetan issue,” said a Tibetan official based in New Delhi. “Yet, what has remained steadfast over the past six decades is the resilience of the Tibetan people and the Indian government's consistent policy on Tibet and its commitment to the welfare of Tibetans.”

There is a growing chorus for New Delhi to maintain its steadfast approach – demonstrated in its relations with Moscow as with the United States – where experts feel it has scored with maturity, by not adopting a “tit for tat” approach with the latter despite tensions over the tariff issue spilling over. Rather, the focus is growing towards investing in a long-term strategic relationship and managing tensions in the short-term with Washington as with Beijing.

“New Delhi has demonstrated that it is not a pushover. At the same time, it is making it clear that its defence and strategic ties with Washington are valuable and it is ready to weather the storm,” said a senior official. Similarly, while security hawks in New Delhi are deeply aware of the proximate ties between the militaries of its two neighbours, Pakistan and China, it is keeping its temporary compromises delinked from its long-term strategic and economic interests. 

Officials recall Washington’s measured response during Canada’s wild allegations of an alleged assassination plot on its soil against India not too long ago. It may well be New Delhi’s turn to sail the tide as it resets its ties with Beijing under the shadow of Trump’s tariffs. The cue has been well taken by Xi and Cai Qi, who left Tibet, one day earlier after inspecting six prefectures of the Tibet Autonomous Region.