Call it the Wuhan Puzzle. Analysts are puzzling over the significance of the two day summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Wuhan lake. It has been described variously as a reset of dete­riorating Sino-Indian relations, a search for a modus Vivendi, and a new path for cooperation between two ancient civilisa­tions. The true explanation for what happened in Wuhan may actually be found in the core principle outlined in Mao Zedong's theory of contradictions.

In his famous work 'On Contradiction', Mao stated successful policy depends on identifying the principal contradiction and setting aside secondary contradictions. As Mao wrote, "The principal contradiction determines which is the most pressing problem facing the leadership; this contradiction must be resolved before it is possible to move on to a higher stage of development." Following this approach in the 1930s, the Chinese Communist Party determined that defeating Japanese imperialism was more important than fighting "class enemies" at home. It accordingly forged a temporary alliance - united front -with the anti-communist Kuomintang to fight the Japanese.

President Xi, a devoted student of Mao, assesses that today's struggle with the United States - representing China's 'principal contradiction' - takes priority over lower-tier contradictions like rivalry with India or tensions with other neighbours. This week, barely days after the Xi-Modi meeting, a team of US cabinet level officials arrived in Beijing seeking to avoid a trade war amid President Trump's threats to impose high tariffs on Chinese imports. The negotiations in Beijing seem like early skirmishes in an existential economic battle with serious strategic implications.

The threat of a US-led trade war, prompted by its massive $375 billion deficit in trade in goods with China, is only the visible sign of tensions with Beijing. Since the 2008 financial crisis, when China positioned itself to challenge American hegemony it has increasingly asserted its economic and military might. The US responded with its pivot to Asia and challenging China's extensive claims in South China Sea; meanwhile, Australia, Japan and India promoted a loose partnership based on common interests in the so-called Indo-Pacific region.

Simmering economic rivalry between the US and China has exploded in the open with Xi Jinping's 'Made in China 2025' initiative. The ambitious programme to claim world leadership in high technology with massive R&D investment ($232 billion in 2016 alone) closely follows a successful Chinese campaign to both steal technology and force Western companies to transfer it to them, much to Washington's consternation. Washington's sharp response - forbidding US companies to sell components to China's leading technology company ZTE -virtually shut down its operations. The US has also prevented Chinese firms from acquiring technology companies and is considering tightening restric­tions on Chinese researchers in programmes likely to affect national security. In the past, China has been able to play off special interest groups to resist or dilute punitive American policies. But frustration and anger about China's preda­tory policies and its overt challenge to dominant US role in Asia have fostered bipartisan unity on tough measures against Beijing. A supremely confident Xi Jinping too has concluded that time for a bare-knuckle clash with the US draws nearer. It is a textbook opportunity for Mao's student to seek rapprochement, if not outright alliance, with those that represent only non-principal contradictions.

The decision to deescalate military tensions along the Himalayan border, offering India an economic stake in Afghanistan, and seeking closer economic cooperation with New Delhi makes perfect sense when China has to muster all of its resources to confronting America. It believes that India, whose economy has shrunk to one-fifth of China's size and continues to fall further behind in technological prowess, could be flattered by laudatory references to its glorio­us history Beijing's blatant pandering - describing India as China's equal as the "backbone of the world's multipolarisation and economic globalisation" -demonstrates that the Wuhan Summit was all about resolving minor contradictions that could be handled at a more opportune time.

Courtesy: Times of India, Editorial, 5-5-2018.