As India navigates competition and cooperation with China, public discourse remains dominated by narratives of threat. Beijing’s official language, however, is often opaque and strategic. To understand how China sees India, one may need to look beyond communiqués and into visual satire. Are political cartoons the clearest mirror of China’s perception of India?
Political cartoons in the Chinese state media provide interesting insights into how China perceives India, especially since official rhetoric is often shrouded in ambiguity. The cartoons highlight three patterns: India as a civilisation constrained by the past, the West’s influence on India and New Delhi’s response, and India’s alliance with the United States and its implications for China. India appears in diverse ways, which reflect the complexities and underlying tensions in bilateral ties.