Rising trade surplus: Carefully calibrated capitulation to China, Cong alleges

New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) In a swipe at the BJP after China announced a record trade surplus, the Congress on Wednesday alleged a "carefully calibrated capitulation" to Beijing and cited leaders of the ruling party and RSS "hobnobbing" with a high-level Chinese Communist Party delegation.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said it would not be surprising that India alone has 10 per cent of the total trade surplus of USD 1.2 trillion in 2025.

"China has just announced that it had a record trade surplus of USD 1.2 trillion in 2025. This means that its trade surplus with India alone was about 10 per cent of the total.

"It should not be surprising though given our carefully calibrated capitulation to China - an example of which was just seen with the way the BJP and RSS leaders were hobnobbing with a high-level Chinese Communist Party delegation day before," Ramesh said in a post on X.

India's exports to China posted a USD 5.5 billion increase compared to last year, bucking the declining trend even as the trade deficit hit a record USD 116.12 billion, according to the annual trade data released by Chinese customs here on Wednesday.

Bilateral trade, too, surged to an all-time high at USD 155.62 billion in 2025, according to the data.

Indian exports to China, which over the years struggled to make headway, climbed to USD 19.75 billion between January and December last year, posting a 9.7 per cent increase.

A high-level delegation of the Communist Party of China, led by its international department's vice minister Sun Haiyan, visited the BJP headquarters on Monday and interacted with the ruling party's leaders. On Tuesday, the Chinese delegation called on RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale.

The CPC delegation also met the Congress's foreign affairs department head, Salman Khurshid, here on Tuesday, with the opposition party asserting that the meeting took place at the request of the visiting delegation and with the government's approval.

The Communist Party of China delegation meetings stirred a political row with the Congress asking whether the BJP raised the issue of repeated Chinese transgressions during its interaction with the visitors, and the ruling party hitting back, saying it acts openly and does not "secretly sign an MoU". PTI SKC SKC RT RT