Communist Party of China delegation meets RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale

A delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC), led by Vice-Minister Sun Haiyan, on Tuesday (January 13, 2026) met Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale in New Delhi.

The meeting went on for around an hour at Keshav Kunj, the RSS head office in the national capital.

This came a day after the CPC delegation met the senior BJP leadership here and the two organisations discussed at length the means to advance inter-party communications.

Sources in the RSS said that the meeting was scheduled on the “request” made by the CPC delegation. As RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had prior appointments, Mr. Hosabale visited New Delhi for the meeting.

Believe in dialogue: RSS

“Sangh [leaders] meet everyone and it believes in dialogue. They requested and we met,” a senior RSS leader said, while adding that the meeting had no specific agenda as the two sides held an informal discussion over tea.

“They discussed RSS’s organisational structure and our functioning,” he added.

The meeting came up despite the RSS not inviting the Chinese envoy for the recent centenary year celebrations, including the lecture series by Mr. Bhagwat that was held in New Delhi and Bengaluru which were attended by diplomats from several countries.

The meeting between the CPC leaders and the RSS, BJP’s ideological parent, happened for the first time in more than a decade. In 2009, under the leadership of then RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav, a delegation of BJP and RSS leaders had visited Beijing.

Besides, a CPC delegation had paid a visit to Keshav Kunj in the past as well.

In one of his opinion pieces written for an English news website, RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya had shared the discussion points he had with a CPC delegation in Delhi several years ago. Mr. Vaidya, in the post, claimed that when he questioned the delegation about the reasons for their interest in the RSS, they had responded that they wanted to know more about the Sangh Parivar because it is a cadre-based organisation, just like the CPC, a cadre-based political party.

Mr. Vaidya further wrote that he also underscored to the CPC about a distinction between the two organisation and stated that while the CPC is a political party that works for and through a ‘State power’, the Sangh “works directly with the people and society”.