China Is Benefiting From the Sikh Murder Fallout
The West’s deliberate blindness to the authoritarianism that has taken root in India has presented Beijing with an opportunity.
Protestors burn a picture of Prime Minster Narendra Modi outside the Indian consulate in Toronto.
Photographer: Arlyn McAdorey/BloombergThe true test of character, as the saying goes, is what you’re doing when no one is watching.
China is never off the global radar, but while the world’s headlines were focused on the very public fallout between India and Canada over the murder of a Sikh activist, Beijing has been busy. It constructed a floating barrier in the South China Sea that the Philippines says is an attempt to stop its fishermen from entering the area, it hosted South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad as part of the Asian Games celebrations, and upgraded bilateral ties with Timor-Leste, giving Beijing more heft in the region.