China is going to give America a run for its money in several areas, the external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar, declared recently, adding, “This is instructive for a country like India.” What makes China so capable? What exactly can India learn from China’s record and experience? If China’s experience is “instructive” for India, should we not be studying it more closely, diligently, open-mindedly? What indeed should we be studying? What channels are available for Indians to, in fact, learn from China? How open would both governments be to facilitate such a learning experience?
The recent ‘normalisation’ of bilateral relations, symbolised partly by the restoration of direct flights between the two countries, should hopefully trigger increased people-to-people interaction, contributing to a better understanding of each other. Calcutta will soon have a direct flight to Guangzhou, one of the many dynamic and rapidly growing urban centres of contemporary China.
The restoration of travel links and an easier visa policy will hopefully contribute to more widespread interest in India in understanding contemporary China. Hopefully, both countries will ease access to students and researchers, and not just focus on business and tourism. Increased interaction among business persons and increased tourism can also benefit both countries acquire a better appreciation of each other.
Thus far, most Indian views about China have been heavily influenced by Western scholarship and media. Very few Indians have invested in studying contemporary China and explaining it to fellow Indians. If the foreign minister has to be taken seriously, what should the government be doing to enable Indians to learn from China’s experience so that India, too, can give America ‘a run for its money’?
China-India tensions have over the years contributed to highly prejudiced and jaundiced views of each other in both countries. What is worse is that a large part of opinion in India about China has been shaped by diplomats and experts in the field of international relations and foreign policy. The border problem, occasional clashes along it, and China’s rising geopolitical and geo-economic profile in India’s neighbourhood dominate much of the Indian discourse on China.
There is hardly any expertise in India on China’s governance experience, its economic policies, urban development and municipal administration, education and healthcare and so on. The time has come for a better understanding of China on the part of economists, urban planners, scientists, educationists, business persons in a wide range of businesses, from automobile manufacture to tourism, healthcare to education, science and technology, development and the management of the environment. We have heard and read enough from geopolitical analysts. It is time for social sciences and public policy analysts, scientists and engineers, to step in.
Language was always a barrier that limited direct communication between the two countries. Chinese technology has solved that problem. China has manufactured gadgets that translate. If one speaks in English into this gadget, a voice translates into Chinese and vice versa. This has made simple communication easy. Moreover, many Chinese are now familiar with enough English to engage a visitor. Hopefully, all this will encourage greater people-to-people and business-to-business interaction.
The starting point of any meaningful interaction with contemporary China is for us to first recognise and acknowledge the fact of its impressive performance. China has emerged as a knowledge-based society and a technology-based economy. It has excelled in infrastructure development. Major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and others showcase modern architecture that is at once stunning and aesthetic. Many Chinese cities dazzle.
One must be prepared for the experience. One must be willing to appreciate and learn from that experience. The Indian elite’s Western orientation spanning centuries has not quite prepared it to concede that the East, and not just Japan, has stolen a march over it.
At the turn of the last century, distinguished Indians like Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya were dazzled by Japan’s modernisation and progress. Swami Vivekananda advised Jamsetji Tata to learn from Japan and invest in science and industry. Tagore wrote lyrically about the country. Visveswaraya returned home and gave the national movement a slogan, ‘Industrialise or perish’.
In many ways, today’s China is yesterday’s Japan. But then, Japan’s rise did not provoke any negative reaction in India. In fact, Jawaharlal Nehru was inspired by the fact that Japan was the first Asian nation to defeat a ‘Western’ nation — Russia — in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905. China, on the other hand, provokes negative reactions at home.
While there have been episodic chanting of ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai’, both countries have, through a series of omissions and commissions, contributed to the long periods of mistrust and antagonism between both peoples. There is little to be gained by apportioning blame since the leadership in both countries, including the present leadership, has made mistakes contributing to an enduring lack of trust.
However, there is every possibility that we are at an inflexion point, once again. The current global scenario offers the opportunity to place the bilateral relationship on a firmer footing. This is not the first time both countries have had such an opportunity and this may not be the last time that they end up wasting an opportunity. When Deng Xiaoping met Rajiv Gandhi, when Wen Jiabao met Manmohan Singh, and when Xi Jingping first met Narendra Modi, an air of optimism pervaded the diplomatic atmosphere. Yet, relations deteriorated after each such occasion.
Even today, it is premature to expect that the serious differences that bedevil the relationship will be resolved. India will remain suspicious of Chinese intentions,
ambitions and investments in its neighbourhood, while China will remain similarly suspicious of Indian intentions and relations with Western and Asian powers. Be that as it may, it is necessary and important that there is much greater people-to-people and business-to-business interaction between both countries.
Indians must approach China’s civil society with an open mind, willing to learn from China’s experience in building not just a competitive manufacturing sector or modern urban infrastructure but also how China has invested in research and development, science and technology, and a knowledge-based polity and society. In fact, China’s experience and record on the latter front are of greater significance for India given our need to invest in human development. India can learn from China on how to unleash its ‘demographic dividend’ before this window of opportunity closes.
Greater civil society and business interaction may create their own challenges. Hopefully, bureaucrats, diplomats and security enthusiasts will not step in to disrupt this nascent but much required engagement that greater connectivity and ease of travel can facilitate. It is useful to remember that despite serious tensions and differences between the United States of America and China, both countries continue to have a high level of people-to-people and business interaction. In fact, America’s interaction with China is far wider, deeper and higher than its interaction with India. There is a lesson in that.
Sanjaya Baru was Editor, Business Standard. His most recent book is Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India