What Xi Jinping's nationalistic, proactive Beijing will mean for India and the world

'Informal summits', for much of China's recent diplomatic history, were an oxymoron. Not since the days of Mao and Nixon have Chinese leaders engaged with their foreign counterparts without all the trappings and formal rituals that Communist China inherited from its imperial past. No unscripted chit-chat here.

But India is no longer dealing with the old China. In October last year, Xi Jinping was effectively coronated president for life, by having his name written into the Party Constitution. In March, this was formalised when presidential term limits were abolished as Xi began his second term in a position of unquestioned strength.

The Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi is the clearest indicator yet of how the Chinese president is taking complete-and extraordinarily personalised-control of China's foreign policy and shattering past protocol. By doing so, Xi is implicitly taking ownership