SANJAYOVACHA | India-China Relations Go Far Beyond The Border | Sanjaya Baru

Public discourse on India’s relations with China has become obsessed with the border issue. The international relations and national security commentariat has monopolised much of it, sidelining scholars from the fields of society, culture and business. The present Chinese leadership has to accept a large part of the blame for this. The repeated incursions along the “Line of Actual Control” (LAC) since 2013 revived memories of the 1962 war in India.

The bilateral relationship took an unfortunate turn after that. Myopia in both Beijing and New Delhi has blurred the multi-dimensional nature of the long-term relationship.

The fact is that through the 1990s and early 2000s both countries were able to maintain peace and tranquility along the LAC and build a stable relationship. Travel and trade had increased as a result. Both are now once again trying to rebalance the relationship.

Thanks to this return to some sort of a modus vivendi, direct flights between the two countries have resumed. They now fly full with tourists and business persons. First-time visitors to China return home dazzled by the country’s progress.

To enable Indians to secure a better understanding of China and of India’s relations with it over the centuries, R. Gopalakrishnan and Nirmala Isaac have written a book, Chanakya and Sun Tzu: A Business Lens on Trade, Thought and Travel, that everyone travelling to China must read.

Gopalakrishnan is well placed to be your guide to contemporary China. As a director on the board of Tata Sons and chairman of Tata Auto Company Ltd, he first landed in the country in 2008 to visit a 100-per cent Tata-owned company based in Nanjing. The Tatas have had a long, even if initially dubious, association with China.

From opium to information technology, the Tata foray into China has a long history. During British colonial rule the United Kingdom repeatedly failed to establish a trading relationship with China. They wanted Chinese tea, silks, porcelain and other exotic stuff, but the Chinese were not interested in buying anything from Britain. How then to forge a trading relationship without giving up too much silver and gold?

Britain found a way around this problem by getting the Chinese hooked on to opium. The opium was cultivated on plantations in India and transported to China. The Tatas were among the early Indian business families to get a share of this lucrative trade.

Bejan Dadabhoy Tata was the first to set up house, buying a villa in Shanghai in 1910. Jamsetji Tata followed in his footsteps, taking the trading relationship forward. The last time I met the late Ratan Tata was at the Boao Forum on Hainan island, China’s answer to the Davos World Economic Forum, in 2018. He was proud of the century-old Tata association with China. Tata Consultancy Services has had a flourishing business in China.

Today, hundreds of business persons travel regularly to China, contributing to the growing India-China trade relationship. Little wonder then that as chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi chose to travel to China, and as Prime Minister he had three important summit meetings with President Xi Jinping.

If the present stability in the government-to-government relationship endures, the people-to-people and business-to-business relationships can only grow. Many in India would then find Gopalakrishnan and Isaac’s book a useful introduction to China. As a former corporate chief, Gopalakrishnan adopts a pragmatic view of the relationship, eschewing standard tropes that have become altogether familiar these days. He is not harking back to the tired old idea of “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai”, but lays out a framework for closer ties.

He advocates wider opportunities for Indians to learn Mandarin. On Peking University campus in 2011, where a Chinese translation of my book Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance was discussed, I met many Hindi-speaking Chinese students. India too needs an army of people across many professions who have a working knowledge of Mandarin. Gopalakrishnan and Isaac strongly advocate increased travel and trade and believe that Indian firms can in fact plug into Chinese supply chains and benefit from the China+1 opportunity.

More importantly, they draw attention to the learning opportunity in China. Very few in India are aware of the fact that 15 Chinese universities have made it to the world’s top 100. The US has 36 in the top 100. India is yet to enter this list. China leads in several fields, most importantly the STEM fields -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

China has much to offer in terms of policy experience with respect to agricultural reform and productivity, industrial regulation, urban development, civil engineering and railway modernisation. Chinese firms have built some of the best highways and airports in the developing world. Chinese municipalities have established clean and green neighbourhoods. Urban architecture has much to show for itself in many Chinese cities.

In all these fields, including in maintaining heritage sites, museums and arts and crafts centres, China has demonstrated quality and capacity. Increased travel and professional contacts can help India benefit from China’s experience. What is required is a change in mindset. A willingness to think of China as a rising, modern economy rather than merely as a suspect neighbour. Mindsets need to change in China too. The arrogance of its elites, even if justified by the record of the country’s historic and meteoric rise, can be a dampener. Hopefully, a more confident China will learn to be more open.

To enable the growth of a more productive relationship between the two countries both require a more imaginative elite and a forward-looking political leadership. There was a time when a leader like Deng Xiaoping took the view that the rise of Asia would only be possible if both China and India rise together. Any attempt by one to disrupt the rise of the other is not going to help either.

The West will continue to dominate the world if China and India continue to spar. Asia’s rise is contingent upon a cooperative relationship between both Asian powers. The fact is that the border question can easily be resolved if political leaders in both countries demonstrate will and exude self-confidence. It will require both countries to come to terms with ground realities and resist the temptation for scoring points.

In the past mistakes were made by leaders of both countries. One hopes that in future, indeed in the present, the leaderships can come together and craft a mutually acceptable solution.

Sanjaya Baru is a writer and economist. His most recent book is Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India