Editor’s Note for Wednesday, April 6, 2022

My thoughts today:

Indian scholar Manoj Kewalramani writes one of my favorite email newsletters: Tracking People’s Daily, which summarizes and translates key articles from the Chinese Communist Party’s house newspaper every day.

His newsletter today, however, is a departure from the usual fare and offers a summary of a discussion on the Ukraine war held on April 5 by the lower house of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha. His takeaways include:

• The language is not as harsh as what we’ve heard in Europe or the U.S. — some MPs were more blunt than others — but there is clear unhappiness with the Russian invasion. At the same time, some MPs did talk about the complex history of developments of the past 30 years between NATO and Russia.
• While there is a sense of appreciation for the historic relationship with Russia, there is significant concern about the deepening Moscow-Beijing partnership. Many MPs pointed to the difficulties that this relationship will pose for India in the future. In my reading, this is the first such serious public conversation regarding the China-Russia relationship presenting a strategic challenge for India that I have noted.

Our word of the day is Hong Kong Secretary for Security (香港保安局局長 xiānggǎng bǎo’ān jú júzhǎng).