Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Donald Trump talks tough on trade. He threatens tariffs, signs executive orders, and demands compliance from America’s trading partners. But look closely at who actually gets punished, and a disturbing pattern emerges. Trump targets India while giving China a free pass. The reason? Pure fear.
India buys discounted Russian oil to protect its consumers from inflation and maintain energy security. For this, Washington slapped a 25 percent tariff penalty on Indian goods. Trump’s executive order demands India stop these imports entirely, with monitoring mechanisms and threats of tariff reinstatement if compliance slips. Meanwhile, China purchases nearly half of Russia’s crude oil exports in volumes far exceeding India’s. Beijing faces no penalties, no threats, no executive orders. The silence is deafening.
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The numbers make the hypocrisy impossible to ignore. India’s trade surplus with the United States hovers around 40 to 45 billion dollars. China’s surplus sits between 300 and 350 billion dollars, nearly eight times larger. China’s total trade volume with America exceeds 575 billion dollars. India’s barely crosses 132 billion. Yet tariffs hit India first, harder, and more arbitrarily.
The explanation is simple. China sells what America desperately needs: electronics, advanced machinery, manufacturing scale, and rare earth elements critical to everything from smartphones to military hardware. India sells what America can source elsewhere: textiles, gems, engineering goods, and services. China can retaliate in ways that trigger immediate economic pain across American cities. Supply chains would snap overnight. Inflation would spike. Consumer costs would explode. India lacks that leverage, and Trump knows it.
This is not about deficits or trade imbalances. Trump fears disruption, not numbers. China controls industrial chokepoints that could cripple the American economy within weeks. Rare earth processing, semiconductor supply chains, pharmaceutical ingredients, the list goes on. Pressuring Beijing risks consequences Washington cannot afford. So Trump picks the safer target. India becomes the convenient punching bag, the pressure valve for a China problem he refuses to confront directly.
The proposed Graham bill exposes this cowardice even further. It threatens 500 percent tariffs on countries buying Russian energy. On paper, China, India, and Brazil all appear as targets. In practice, analysts agree India alone remains genuinely exposed. A 500 percent tariff on Indian exports would hurt New Delhi but leave global supply chains largely intact. The same tariff on Chinese goods would detonate the world economy. Washington understands this calculation perfectly.
Even on the Russian oil question itself, the double standard is brazen. Trump claims India committed to stopping purchases. His executive order implies as much. Yet India’s joint statement with Washington stays conspicuously silent on the matter. New Delhi speaks only of energy security. The Kremlin says it heard no such commitment from India. Refiners have paused some contracts, but imports have not dropped to zero. Nayara Energy continues operations. Russia dismisses American pressure as dictation.
The United States, meanwhile, sets up compliance monitoring for India while completely ignoring China’s vastly larger Russian oil imports. This is not partnership language. This is probation language. India is treated like a problem to be managed. China is treated like a system to be negotiated with, however uncomfortably.
The broader pattern extends beyond oil. India lost Generalised System of Preferences access despite following trade rules. China retains massive trade volumes despite being labelled a strategic competitor and openly violating World Trade Organisation commitments. India gets sudden, transactional tariffs on steel, aluminium, solar panels, and pharmaceuticals. China gets carefully sequenced tariffs that are quietly rolled back when American inflation concerns mount.
Washington demands India open markets, lower tariffs, protect American intellectual property, abandon data localisation, and buy American goods. When India requests visa certainty for technology workers, market access for pharmaceuticals, or recognition of manufacturing incentives, the answer is always later. Or never. China subsidises state champions, forces technology transfers, and manipulates currency. Yet America still negotiates frameworks, summits, and backchannels with Beijing.
The uncomfortable truth is this: Trump only pressures countries that cannot fight back effectively. China is feared. India is underestimated. Fear commands respect and accommodation. Underestimation invites bullying. That hierarchy decides who absorbs the pain in Trump’s transactional worldview. India must recognise this reality clearly. Strategic autonomy is no longer just a diplomatic slogan. It is economic survival.
– Ends
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
