Trump's India Tariff Tirade: A Gift to Beijing? With Evan Feigenbaum
Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo
4.7 • 710 Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on the Sinica Podcast, I welcome back Evan Feigenbaum, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Evan served for many years as a State Department official, was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asia among his numerous positions in government, and was instrumental in building the U.S.-India relationship after 2000 — only to watch Trump round on India in recent months, slapping large punitive tariffs on the South Asian giant ostensibly over its purchases of Russian oil. What motivated Trump? And how does this look from New Delhi and from Beijing? Will China capitalize on the strains in the U.S.-Indian relationship? Listen and find out.
04:12 – Building "trust" in politics
10:22 – Changes in U.S. policy
15:11 – Did India take advantage of Russia?
20:07 – How U.S. rules shape India
25:21 – "Rebuilding" the U.S.–India relationship
29:56 – Beijing on Trump vs. India
42:48 – India, Quad, and Indo-Pacific strategy
49:55 – Managing U.S.–India tensions
Paying it Forward: Kenji Kushida
Recommendations:
Evan: How China Is Reshaping International Security Cooperation by Sheena Greitens and Isaac Kardon
Kaiser: How Sino-centrism and U.S.-centrism warp(ed?) Beijing’s foreign policy thinking by Tang Shiping and Qi Dapeng
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Cynica podcast, the weekly discussion of current affairs in China. |
| 0:13.4 | In this program, we'll look at books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural trends |
| 0:19.2 | that can help us better understand what's |
| 0:21.1 | happening in China's politics, foreign relations, economics, and society. |
| 0:25.6 | Join me each week for in-depth conversations that shed more light and bring less heat to how |
| 0:30.9 | we think and talk about China. |
| 0:33.4 | I'm Kaiser Guo coming to you this week from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. |
| 0:37.2 | Cynica is supported this year by the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, |
| 0:42.3 | a national resource center for the study of East Asia. |
| 0:45.2 | The Cynica podcast will remain free as always, but if you work for an organization that believes in what I'm doing with the show and with the newsletter, |
| 0:53.0 | please do consider lending your support. |
| 0:55.1 | You can get me at Cinecapod at gmail.com. I am in the market for new institutional support. Please help out. |
| 1:01.4 | Listeners, you can do your part by becoming a paying subscriber at Cinecapodcast.com. |
| 1:07.0 | You will enjoy there, in addition to the podcast, the complete transcript of the show, essays for me, as well as writings and podcasts from some of your favorite China-focused columnists and commentators, and of course the knowledge that you were helping me to do what I honestly believe is very important work. |
| 1:21.4 | So do check out the page and see all it's on offer. |
| 1:24.9 | Consider helping me out. |
| 1:27.2 | It's been a remarkable few weeks in South Asian diplomacy. |
| 1:31.1 | On August 6th, President Trump signed an executive order slapping in additional 25% |
| 1:36.6 | tariff on most Indian goods, tariffs that went into effect today. |
| 1:41.1 | It's August 27th, as we record, effectively doubling duties on many categories |
| 1:46.6 | of goods. This was ostensibly done to punish New Delhi for continued purchases of Russian oil. |
| 1:53.1 | Just a couple of weeks later, China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, was in New Delhi for meetings |
... |
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