India is increasingly standing up to her larger, faster and more competitive neighbor who she has viewed with awe for the past several years. Taking charge of bilateral foreign policy, India is finally asserting her stand and making her voice heard both regionally and internationally. Whether it’s the South China Sea dispute, 100,000 additional troops at the border, the traded basket of goods, the global Buddhist conference, the postponed border security talks, or a firm say at the UN, India is becoming bolder to her neighbors overtures.

Alarmed by increasing incidents of Indian firms being cheated by their Chinese counterparts, the Indian embassy In Beijing put out an advisory warning traders from entering into any financial dealings, without doing due diligence first. Particularly traders of iron ore and steel, as well as Chemicals have been sorely affected, by bogus companies and fake bank accounts. While trade disputes such as these exist on both sides of the borders, the Indian Embassy in Beijing has taken a bold stance by the warning. To prevent Indian and Chinese companies from falling into elaborate money-making traps, Inchin Closer recently listed ways in which fraudulent trade between the two countries and precautions businessmen should take to avoid it.

“We want the Indian businessmen, specially the small traders from rural areas, should cross-check before depositing money to internet savvy Chinese exporters, who are disappearing after receiving the money,” K Nagraj Naidu, consuller trade and business of the Indian business said.  According to the embassy, complaints regarding 66 cases of cheating has been received by the embassy this year. The amount involved under these cases of trade dispute was in excess of US$ 78,43,000 in 2009, US$ 54,01,914 in 2010 and US$ 18,82,119 in 2011 (Jan-July 15).

More recently too, India stood up to China when it was asked to choose between holding the global buddhist conference in Delhi, hosting the Dalai Lama as its chief guest Vs. hosting Chinese special Representative Dai Bingguo who was to be in the same capital city for border resolution ties with his counterpart Shivshankar Menon. Delhi chose to stick with the former, deciding that Beijing’s demands were too stringent for them and that postponing the talks for less high-tension ties are better.

Additionally to fight off the unbalanced trade of goods, India has taken several steps to nudge China to open up her markets. While steering clear  from the arm-wringing efforts of the US, India has been using her soft power to persuade China to give it access to technology, pharma, manufacturing goods. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said during the recently concluded Winter session of parliament, “With a view to reducing trade deficit (with China), efforts are being made to diversify the trade basket with emphasis on manufactured goods. We are also pursuing market access issues to tackle non-tariff barriers in the Chinese market”.