‘Comparing apples to oranges’: US diplomat on Landau’s remarks about US not repeating its China mistake with India
Bonnie Glick, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defence of Democracies said comparing India and China solely through the lens of economic engagement is not a “broad enough way to look at it”
- Mar 6, 2026,
- Updated Mar 6, 2026 10:02 AM IST
Comparing China to India is like comparing apples to oranges, both are vastly different situations vis-a-vis their ties with the US, said Bonnie Glick, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defence of Democracies, in response to US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau’s recent remarks. Landau said the US will not make the same mistakes with India that it had made with China 20 years ago.
Glick, responding to Landau’s remarks at Raisina Dialogues, said, “What we're really talking about here is apples and oranges, two very different situations. China was cut out of the international economic order until the early 2000s when it was granted entry into the World Trade Organisation. That experiment of allowing a communist country to join the global economic order has been widely viewed as a miscalculation in the United States.”
She added: “India, as the world's largest democracy, as our most important democratic ally in terms of heft in the international arena. India is very different. There have been trade issues that complicate the economic relations between the United States and India, but I think when we talk about the depth of that relationship, while we may have concerns about tariffs, at the end of the day, the relationship between the United States and India is not based solely on economics. It's based on more foundational elements of freedom, of family, of even an approach to faith.”
Glick added that comparing India and China solely through the lens of economic engagement is not a “broad enough way to look at it”.
She said the US will never have a trade war with India, but there might be increased tariffs, as there will be for the rest of the countries.
Landau, on Thursday, said at the Raisina Dialogues that the trade deal can be the basis for really unlocking limitless potential in both the countries. “But India should understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes with India that we made with China 20 years ago,” he said, adding that Washington will not say you can develop all these markets only to see India beating them in a lot of commercial things.
Landau said the US needs to be accountable to its own people just as India has to be accountable to its citizens.
Comparing China to India is like comparing apples to oranges, both are vastly different situations vis-a-vis their ties with the US, said Bonnie Glick, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defence of Democracies, in response to US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau’s recent remarks. Landau said the US will not make the same mistakes with India that it had made with China 20 years ago.
Glick, responding to Landau’s remarks at Raisina Dialogues, said, “What we're really talking about here is apples and oranges, two very different situations. China was cut out of the international economic order until the early 2000s when it was granted entry into the World Trade Organisation. That experiment of allowing a communist country to join the global economic order has been widely viewed as a miscalculation in the United States.”
She added: “India, as the world's largest democracy, as our most important democratic ally in terms of heft in the international arena. India is very different. There have been trade issues that complicate the economic relations between the United States and India, but I think when we talk about the depth of that relationship, while we may have concerns about tariffs, at the end of the day, the relationship between the United States and India is not based solely on economics. It's based on more foundational elements of freedom, of family, of even an approach to faith.”
Glick added that comparing India and China solely through the lens of economic engagement is not a “broad enough way to look at it”.
She said the US will never have a trade war with India, but there might be increased tariffs, as there will be for the rest of the countries.
Landau, on Thursday, said at the Raisina Dialogues that the trade deal can be the basis for really unlocking limitless potential in both the countries. “But India should understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes with India that we made with China 20 years ago,” he said, adding that Washington will not say you can develop all these markets only to see India beating them in a lot of commercial things.
Landau said the US needs to be accountable to its own people just as India has to be accountable to its citizens.