<b>Ajai Shukla:</b> Watching the big boys play

As US, China joust for supremacy, India might remain on the sidelines with its limited resources

After being sworn in as America’s 45th president on January 20, Donald J Trump has trodden the promised tough line towards China, vowing to “build a military might so great… that none will dare to challenge it”. US conservatives are already drawing triumphal parallels with Ronald Reagan’s defence spending spree in the 1980s that induced the former Soviet Union to spend itself into insolvency. However, rival superpower China, which can scarcely ignore the gauntlet Mr Trump has thrown down, has an infinitely more robust economy than that of the former Soviet Union. How will Beijing respond to Mr Trump’s belligerence?