'They’re playing on a different board': Analyst warns China’s praise for rivals masks a deeper truth

When a geopolitical rival praises you, it often says more about their strategy than your success. That’s the cautionary lens Gurgaon-based analyst Siddharth Ojha applied in a recent post, dissecting China’s subtle diplomatic playbook. 

His take came after Chinese state-backed Global Times called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on India-China relations a “pragmatic approach.”

PM Modi, during a conversation with podcaster Lex Fridman, had spoken of "healthy and natural" competition between the two neighbours. 

Acknowledging the 2020 border standoff, he said, "After my meeting with President Xi, we have seen a return to normalcy at the border. We are working to restore conditions to how they were before 2020."

Ojha wrote, “In the shadows of global power plays, China’s diplomatic praise for others often reveals more than it conceals.” He argued that such approval surfaces only when Beijing is certain of three things: first, that GDP as a metric is outdated in the era of Comprehensive National Power (CNP); second, that praise can be weaponised through strategic subterfuge; and third, that China believes its dominance is secure—“a confidence steeped in hubris, begging to be shattered.”

Ojha contends that China's priorities have shifted from dollar-based GDP comparisons to deeper levers of control and power. 

“Dollar-denominated GDP? A distraction for the naive,” he said, noting that China is operating on a different board entirely.

Citing World Bank data, he highlighted that China’s GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms hit $27.3 trillion in 2020, well ahead of the US’s $21.4 trillion. More telling, however, is China's emphasis on technological sovereignty. With over 1.5 million patent applications filed in 2020 (WIPO), China has demonstrated a clear intent to dominate innovation spaces like AI, quantum computing, and 5G.

Its industrial scale is equally formidable. China now produces over 50% of the world’s steel and is racing to close the semiconductor gap, though it still trails Taiwan. Then there’s the leverage built through global dependencies—from rare earth minerals (where China controls 80% of production) to digital infrastructure led by Huawei’s 5G reach.