China selling advanced warships to Pakistan is bad news for India - and America

As the first frigate for Islamabad's navy was launched this week, Beijing sent a statement of intent that it has various ways and means to stop the US and its allies encircling it. Over the past several years, India and China have increasingly become geopolitical competitors. While the Galwan Valley border clash last year was epitomized as the biggest trigger, the mutual distrust runs much deeper and wider, not least as the United States has used India as a strategic counterweight to China's growing power, as part of its 'Indo-Pacific' strategy. In response, Beijing has solidified its economic, strategic and…