The White House wanted India to bow. Instead, Narendra Modi flew to China, shook Xi Jinping\u2019s hand and left Washington sidelined <\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s imperial tendencies see the US president wield tariffs and sanctions in the expectation that America will receive tributes. Yet his latest move \u2013 punishing India with 50% tariffs<\/a> for Russian oil purchases once encouraged<\/a> by the US \u2013 has produced not submission but spectacle. It has sent India\u2019s Narendra Modi to China for the first time in seven years<\/a> as Xi Jinping hosted more than 20 leaders for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin. And it is in Tianjin, not Washington, where it looks as if the hinge of history is moving.<\/p>\n The SCO is easy to dismiss: the bloc is a bundle of contradictions. India and Pakistan<\/a> remain adversaries. China and India still stare across a garrisoned Himalayan frontier, though relations have thawed since last October\u2019s border breakthrough<\/a>. Russia and China vie for influence in Central Asia. Unlike Nato, the SCO has no binding defence commitments. For much of its life, it has looked like a paper tiger, sending out communiques that were all roar and no bite.<\/p>\n