Hands Across the Himalayas

"The Pyrenees are no more," said Louis XIV of France when his grandson Philip acceded to the throne of Spain, and it's tempting to think that the same is true of the Himalayas. The visit to India that starts this week by Wen Jiabao, China's Premier, is being spun as a celebration of relations between Asia's giants that are good, and getting better. Whatever the truth of that claim, this much is certain: very soon, meetings between the leaders of China and India will not be of merely regional interest. They will be watched by the whole...