海角大神

President Obama has serious influence as a globetrotter: Since his trip to India, he鈥檚 been followed to New Delhi by France鈥檚 Nicolas Sarkozy and now Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Mr. Wen, who arrived in India Wednesday afternoon, is even mimicking Mr. Obama鈥檚 entourage by bringing with him hundreds of business executives. It remains to be seen if he can best Obama鈥檚 souvenirs of business deals worth $10 billion and 50,000 jobs. But Wen will certainly go home with more than a T-shirt.

While China is putting business deals front and center with India, the two largest countries on earth have major strains to hash out behind closed doors. Obama鈥檚 earlier visit put China on notice that its recent assertiveness over disputed territory has galvanized neighbors like India to deepen ties with the United States as geopolitical insurance.

China has long been nettled by New Delhi鈥檚 sheltering of the Dalai Lama. Meanwhile, India has been particularly unnerved over the past couple of years by:

• The refusal of China to stamp visas inside the passports of Indian residents 鈥� and even an Indian military general 鈥� from the disputed Kashmir region; Chinese officials have stamped separate, stapled papers instead.
• Chinese border incursions along the Himalayan border that remains disputed since a 1962 border war; India has quietly begun large infrastructure buildups in response.
• The Chinese buildup of naval port facilities in the Indian Ocean, a strategy dubbed the 鈥渟tring of pearls鈥� that鈥檚 designed to choke off Indian naval emergence.

Obama鈥檚 November trip tapped into growing trepidation in Asia over Chinese assertiveness and drew together a similar 鈥渟tring of pearls鈥� of major democracies with navies that surround China 鈥� India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. Strategist Robert Kaplan has called attention to the semicircle that those nations form around China.

鈥淚t's not a war I'm predicting, but what I am alluding toward is a very complex, Metternichian arrangement of power from the Horn of Africa all the way up through the Sea of Japan,鈥� the Monitor quoted Mr. Kaplan as saying at a book event in Cambridge, Mass. "We don't have to interfere everywhere, we just have to move closer to our democratic allies in the region so they can do more of the heavy lifting."

China has clearly noticed the mounting backlash in its neighborhood.

鈥淭he notion that China will overtake the US and dominate the world is a myth,鈥� State Councilor Dai Bingguo posted on the Chinese government鈥檚 website. 鈥淥ur fundamental policy and strategy is to not take the lead and not seek hegemony.鈥�

Mr. Dai added: 鈥淭he international community should welcome and not be afraid of China鈥檚 peaceful development, should help it rather than hinder it, and should support it and not to contain it.鈥�

Already, Wen has used the visit as an opportunity to sound similar reassurances.

"China and India are partners for cooperation, not rivals in competition. There is enough space in the world for the development of both China and India," he told business leaders in New Delhi Wednesday.

The Indian government, which is hoping that Wen will renounce the policy of stapling visas, will also be sounding out Wen on whether China鈥檚 position has changed on opposing a permanent seat for India on the United Nations Security Council.

Wen鈥檚 visit to New Delhi will last two days. On Friday he travels to Islamabad for meetings with China鈥檚 close ally, .