I had not expected this of Modi, unless this is a case of keep your friends close and your enemies closer. In that case he is playing some kind of chess game.
I do recall him talking about bringing to India a “Thatcherite revolution” re: Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s comment about Gorbachev?
The question is, whose tune is the PLA marching to? Xi Jinping is also the head of the military commission. Many here in India suspect that this was the Chinese way of testing Modi. If so, they picked the wrong guy at a time when the US and Japan are both courting him. One fallout is that a Chinese official media team coming to India for "interaction" with Indian media, suddenly had their permissions scrapped.
If his economic policies match that of China, then he’s as far away from Thatcher as one can get.
A while back, the European Union was saying that they wanted their own George Washington, but given their economic and political dogma (they have a parliament that can’t even write laws), is it really Washington they want?