When Hui Liangyu, China's vice-premier, visited New Delhi last week he was presented with a miniature silver chariot pulled by two horses. The horses, his hosts quipped, represented China and India pulling the global economy into recovery.

More often than not these horses pull in different directions. India bridles at its growing dependence on Chinese telecommunications and power equipment, vital for modernising its decrepit infrastructure. It has imposed curbs on Chinese companies bringing workers across the Himalayas to build pipelines and power plants. Fearful of a flood of cheap imports supported by an artificially weak renminbi, India has also put restrictions on non-branded Chinese mobile handsets, toys and chocolate.

The tensions stretch to territory, too. India worries about Chinese claims to Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian state bordering Bhutan and Tibet; Beijing's interference in disputed Kashmir; and its navy's presence in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. China's alliance with Pakistan, and its supply of military hardware, also rankles.