Sekhar Raha of the Telegraph (Calcutta) writes about the 20th anniversary of the visit to China by then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi, and reports on the similarities and differences of the last few decades in India and China’s economic development.
At the time of Rajiv Gandhi’s visit, China was already a decade into its reforms, whereas we were still three years away from embarking on ours. In the period that followed, much to our chagrin, China remained inexplicably a more attractive destination for foreign investment than India in spite of the perception that India’s relative advantages in the use of the English language for business, and its established and recognized legal, banking and stock market processes should give the country an edge. Paradoxically, the English language and free media seemed to make India’s ills more transparent, whereas the mystique and opaqueness of China obfuscated its blemishes. Clearly, China had the advantage. It became a manufacturing hub for the world. In contrast, we continue to seek an acceptable approach to our rehabilitation issues surrounding the claims for land needed to support integrated manufacture. China would find such obstacles incomprehensible…
Recently, the phrase, ‘Chindia’, has been coined, as if the two countries are in consonance in their approach to the rest of the world. But both in formal and casual conversation, it is evident that the Chinese do not regard India as serious competition. They are heavily invested in the United States of America, and will do whatever it takes to retain the competitiveness of their currency whether India is in alignment or not. Concerning relations with India, the Chinese refer to mutual suspicion, unresolved border problems, issues with Tibet and the Dalai Lama as areas in which India needs to change its mindset. Less palatably, a commentator from the Xinhua said that the general view of the Mumbai terrorist attack was that “it had destroyed the big-country dream of India”, and that Chinese news reports on India tended to be “at best neutral, at worst hostile” in an endeavour to boost China’s nationalism.
For more information on Chindia, please see CDT past posts.
