E-Paper
Beijing can build India’s economy better than West: Chinese scholar
BEIJING: Under the broad premise of maintaining peace along the disputed border, China should expand economic cooperation to deepen mutual trust, enhance complementarity
BEIJING: Under the broad premise of maintaining peace along the disputed border, China should expand economic cooperation to deepen mutual trust, enhance complementarity and develop new fields of development with India, a leading Chinese scholar has said.
Since it is a “responsible, great nation” on the road of “high momentum”, Beijing’s India strategies should be positive and effective, Jiang Jingkui, director of the South Asia Research Centre at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing, said.
“As a responsible great nation, China should also have positive and effective strategies and attitudes towards India. China should further deepen its relationship with India, implement the bilateral cooperation in energy and climate fields, thrive to develop new collaboration fields and strengthen the principles to have communications with India,” Jiang wrote for the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) mouthpiece, the People’s Daily’s Chinese newspaper.
The opinion piece comes days before President Xi Jinping will be in Goa for the 8th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit where he will meet PM Narendra Modi.
“Under the premise of maintaining border peace and stability, China should enhance the complementary relationship with India, try to benefit from Indian market and gradually explore ways to appropriately settle disputes and realise mutual benefit,” Jiang wrote referring to possibly the single-most festering bilateral problem, the unresolved border dispute.
Jiang defined the current stage of Sino-India relations as “warm economics and cold politics”, which indicates deepening economic cooperation but conflicts in geopolitics.
The scholar’s words of advice for India to gain from China’s experience were simple – don’t get co-opted by the western powers against Beijing.
“On one hand, the common interests between China in India have determined that India would not ally with countries like America, Australia on the general principle, because China’s development would bring India much more benefit than disadvantages. On the other hand, ever from the 20th century, India has become a favourite boy of the world. Countries including Russia, America, Australia and EU have all reached their hands to India,” Jiang wrote.
“At the same time, facing co-opting (efforts) from countries and regions like America, Australia and EU, India should accurately position itself, balance the disagreement and cooperation with China to prevent the bilateral relationship from being troubled by a third party,” he wrote.
Anyway, according to Jiang, China will be able to help India develop its economy more than the western countries can because both India and China are developing economies.
