Narendra Modi once looked up to China.
As a business-friendly Indian state leader, he traveled there repeatedly to attract investment and see how his country could learn from its neighbor’s economic transformation.
China, he said, has a “special place in my heart.” Chinese officials cheered on his march to national power as that of “a political star.”But not long after Mr. Modi became prime minister in 2014, China made clear that the relationship would not be so easy.
Continued border incursions flared into a ferocious clash in 2020 that threatened to lead to all-out war.
Mr. Modi, a strongman who controls every lever of power in India and has expanded its relations with many other countries, appears uncharacteristically powerless in the face of the rupture with China.
Persons:
Narendra Modi, Modi, Xi Jinping —
Locations:
China, India