Mint Explainer: The mystery behind India's flourishing trade with China

The expansion of India's trade with China even as commerce with the rest of the world contracted in 2023-24 helped the latter re-emerge as the country's largest trading partner at a time when political relationships between the two continue to be strained. Data recently released by the commerce ministry show that India's imports from China grew by more than 3% in 2023-24 even as the country's total merchandise goods purchases from overseas fell by almost 6%. Similarly, India's exports to China climbed nearly 9% while total exports contracted by almost 3%. India's imports from China, which are multiple times its…