China Monitor
The monitor features developments related to China during the month and is compiled by our research team of Amb. Biren Nanda, Senior Fellow, and Sanket Joshi, Research Associate, from open-source reports and publications.
Official-level diplomatic engagement between India and China continued during the month, with the visit of the head of the East Asia division in India’s MEA to Beijing on December 11-12, 2025. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress made in stabilising and rebuilding bilateral relations, prioritising people-centric engagements.
On December 20, 2025, Dr. S. Jaishankar, India's Minister of External Affairs, in public remarks, referred to India's increasingly complex relationship with the US and China due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the global trade war. He stated that “engaging the US and managing China is now more complicated”, while reiterating India's foreign policy principle of putting national interest first. He added that the US and China play by their own rules, and given this reality, India is pursuing policies that aim to enhance its comprehensive national power.
The Trump administration released the US National Security Strategy (NSS) on December 4, 2025. Major issues discussed in the NSS included reasserting the ‘Monroe Doctrine’ to restore American pre-eminence in the Western hemisphere, deterring a potential conflict over Taiwan by preserving military overmatch, enhancing naval capabilities to keep the vital shipping lanes open, including in the South China Sea, and insisting on increased burden-sharing from allies such as Japan and South Korea.
Chinese analysts stated that the US NSS frames allies not just as partners, but as instruments to “preserve American primacy and counter China's rise”. They also observed that the US had formally acknowledged the limits of its global reach and initiated a strategic recalibration, signalling “the end of Pax Americana’s unipolar moment”.
In his year-end press conference on December 19, Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasised the need for “responsible statecraft” and “mature” handling of US-China relations. On the other hand, the US announced an arms package worth USD 11 billion to Taiwan. Reacting sharply, the PLA conducted a massive joint military exercise around Taiwan titled "Justice Mission 2025" on December 29-30, 2025.
Addressing a symposium on the International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations in Beijing on December 30, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, amidst what he termed as global turbulence and "once-in-a-century global transformation", highlighted China's role as a stabilising force in global affairs, a pivotal contributor to the reform of the global governance system, the main engine of global economic growth, and a proponent of international justice.
President Xi delivered his New Year 2026 address on December 31, 2025. He shed light on the accomplishments of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), emphasising that the country has overcome many challenges while making solid strides towards modernisation. The Chinese economy is expected to have grown at a rate of around 5 percent in 2025, with a GDP of CNY 140 trillion (around USD 20 trillion).
