In election year, domestic politics see India and US converge on taking a hard line on China

Every summer, amidst the skateboarders and the shoppers strolling to the farmers’ market at Manhattan’s Union Square, Tibetan protesters and their supporters gather to remind the world about the occupation of their homeland by the Chinese.

This year, their campaign got a lift as former US House speaker and Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi along with a group of US lawmakers travelled to Dharamshala in India to meet the Dalai Lama on June 19. A few days later, the Dalai Lama was in New York City to receive medical treatment.

Pelosi’s visit to Dharamsala was an indication of how the ruling parties in New Delhi and Beijing are giving up their hesitancy about offending Beijing and are making visible gestures on matters that strike against China’s modern conception of itself: Tibet and Taiwan. Beijing has refused to engage with the notion that either are independent entities.

Expectedly, Pelosi’s visit drew a sharp reaction from China. Her meeting came as a sequel to the passage on June 12 by the US Congress of the Resolve Tibet Act, which urges China to re-engage with the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders.

In India, the Narendra Modi-led coalition government also seemed to indicate that it is willing to intensify its signals to China. In...

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