External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has rightfully stated that China is a ‘unique problem’ for India and for most countries of the world. Jaishanker, who was speaking at the ET World Leaders Forum on Saturday in the national capital, has also said that India is not the only country in the world that is having a debate about China. Looking back, one finds that China has remained a problem for India ever since the latter emerged as an independent country. This has been a fact despite Nehru’s failure to accept that “China-India bhai-bhai” was a one-sided slogan of New Delhi, and Beijing had never ever accepted it. The crisis of the winter of 1962, in which Nehru had almost bid a farewell to Assam and the Northeast, was an outcome of the then-Congress regime’s failure to read the mind of China. With New Delhi’s perceptions undergoing a drastic change vis-à-vis China, especially in the past decade or so, Jaishankar is justified when he said that China is not just an Indian problem. It is thus important to understand why Jaishankar has remarked that if today people are complaining about trade deficits with China, it is because decades ago, practically the whole world consciously chose to overlook the nature of Chinese production and the advantages that they enjoyed in a system where they got a level playing field with all the advantages that they brought to bear. He is also right when he said that the major debates—be they about the economy or about security—both Europe and the US are about China. As far as India is considered, China has continued to remain the most difficult neighbour, one thathas been reflected in Jaishankar’s speech, in which he recalled that while in 2020 the Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Galwan, the same year the pandemic started. cannot be trusted under any circumstances. This has been reflected in Jaishankar’s speech, in which he recalled that while in 2020 the Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Galwan, the same year the pandemic started.