Cannot talk for India, but CPDLC over the NAT is still far from perfect, and only 25% of the aircraft crossing the Atlantic this Summer were equipped. So HF has still a future ....
NAT Phase 4 will clear some of the current problems , but as long as the whole thing is largely based on ACARS , with no acknowledgment messages, the full monty ( i.e no HF R/T anymore ) is still somewhere in the future, even in the NAT.
as to the Chinese doing everything faster than anybody else, I would not dare to comment on this,,, but RVSM in 2008 in meters comes to my mind
