China Claims it is Still India's Top Trade Partner

China reaffirmed on Tuesday that it will continue to be India's Largest Trade Partner in 2021-22, blaming the "difference" on various ways of calculating trade volume used by New Delhi and Beijing, while alluding to allegations that the US had surpassed it to grab the top spot.

"According to the statistics of Chinese competent authorities, bilateral trade volume between China and India stood at $125.66 billion in 2021," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing when asked about reports of the US overtaking China to become the largest trade partner of India in 2021-22. Zhao said, "China remains the largest trade partner of India and for the first time the bilateral trade exceeded $100 billion in 2021. The disparity in trade figures published by China and India is a result of different statistical measurement scales."

China calculates the fiscal year from January to December, whereas India does so from April to March each year.

At the same time, Zhao stated, "China does not object to the development of normal trade relations between India and the US, and is not that interested in changes in trade volume ranking," undermining the US, which is rapidly improving its relations with India through strategic alliances such as the Quad, (US, India, Japan, Australia) alliance, which is unseating it from the top slot.