Risks and rewards of the return of Chinese firms to India

THE return of the Chinese mobile and technology company Vivo as the title sponsor of India's mega-dollar Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament shows that the two countries' relationship is once again as close as "lips and teeth", to borrow a phrase from former Chinese prime minister Zhou Enlai in October 1954.

After the Sino-Indian militaries clashed along their common Himalayan border in June 2020, the IPL had replaced Vivo as its title sponsor with an Indian fantasy sports platform, Dream 11. Earlier, Vivo Mobile India, a subsidiary of Guangdong-headquartered Vivo Communication Technology Co, had bagged the title sponsorship rights for the period from 2017 to 2022 for some US$341 million, further extending their association since 2015.

Using the "lips and teeth" metaphor to describe China's close relations with North Korea after Beijing decided to intervene in the Korean War, then-premier Zhou had stated that if the North Korean "lip" was gone, China (the "teeth") would feel cold. And when the "lip" of Indian cricket was gone last year, Chinese business did feel the chill.