From Time Magazine, an article outlining the complexities of the China-India relationship:
India is obsessed with China. Mainland goods from refrigerators to clothes to cameras to children’s toys flood Indian markets. China’s pavilion is the most popular by far at the India International Trade Fair, which opened in Delhi last week and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors some days. (At one stand, The Hindu newspaper noted with amazement, punters can buy not only a pair of bargain-priced Chinese jeans, but also the Chinese machinery that makes them.) Indian newspapers are talking up the idea of an emerging “Chindia” ” a phrase coined by Indian economist Jairam Ramesh ” that acts as a counterbalance to traditional powers Europe and the U.S. And while the government still focuses on their differences ” theirs is a democracy, Indian officials note, where laws are debated and voted on rather than pushed through by an all-powerful one- party state ” it also looks to the success of Beijing’s economic reforms as a model for transforming its own country.
Nevertheless, it will probably take some bold steps for Beijing and New Delhi to put the past behind them. [Full text]
– Read also “Analysis: China and India remain rivals, despite the deals” from Times Online, “The myth of Chindia” from The Economist, and “The geometry of Sino-Indian ties” from Asia Times.
Also see reports from both the Chinese and Indian media about Hu’s visit to India, including:
“Be pragmatic: Hu to Left,” from the Press Trust of India
“China, India pledge to expand co-op on regional, int’l stages” from Xinhua, and
“Hu, unlike India, presses for boundary settlement” from the Hindustan Times.
