Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai?

The world will keenly watch when the "world's factory" and the "world's back-office" come together. This would bring into reality the much cherished dream of Deng Xiaoping—that of an "Asian century".

—Xi Jinping, the current President of China (before his 2014 visit to India)

The above words underline the importance of cooperation between, while mentioning their respective strengths, the two largest countries of Asia in the current world-order when the world is moving away from the unipolarity induced by the US hegemony towards multi-polarity having BRICS as an important pole. The UN Human Development Report's (UNHDR 2013) title had clearly stated this—the rise of the Global South.

India and China shared cordial relations during what most historians refer to as ancient history. Chinese travellers Fa-Hien (4th century AD) and Hiuen Tsang (7th century AD) visited India to know about the various facets of Indian culture and education, especially Buddhism. In the modern historical period, India and China shared a colonial past. They were part of the triangular opium trade that the British merchants carried on to enrich their land from the resources sucked out of these two regions. Thereafter, India and China became 'independent' at nearly the same time—India gained dominion status from the British in 1947; the Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong overthrew the rule of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang in 1949.

1954 marked an important year when India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Chinese Premier Chou Enlai adopted the 'Panchsheel'—the five principles of peaceful co-existence—as a foreign policy basis. Post 1959 (when Dalai Lama and his other Tibetan followers took a refuge in India), the feedback given to Nehru by his sister Vijaylakshmi Pandit and his close aide V.K. Krishna Menon about the soft and cordial nature of Mao Zedong led Nehru (who also held the external affairs portfolio) to have the nation go his idealistic way and underestimate the ground situation. This came to picture in the 1962 Sino-Indian war which exposed the Indian foreign policy loopholes and forced Nehru to make his friend Krishna Menon resign from the post of the defence minister.

A look from that year to the present year shows that Sino-Indian relations have come a long way from the mere rhetoric of "Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai" (the Indians and the Chinese are brothers). The remarkably close cooperation between the two nations clearly brings out the fact that different domestic political systems do not stand as a barrier in the relations between the two countries. Of course—the changing world-order post-Cold War (post 1991), the changing geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific region, increased globalization and liberalization of the two economies, increased environmental concerns, the nuclear status of the two countries—all have their share in the present state of relations.

Common Economic Interests

China took on the route to liberalization much before India did so—Deng Xiaoping was instrumental in bringing that transition for his country in 1979; that for India was ushered in by P.V. Narasimha Rao (Indian PM) and Manmohan Singh (Indian Finance Minister) in 1991. China worked upon its strongest area, i.e., manufacturing sector, and that has led to it being called the "world's factory" now. Meanwhile, Indians worked upon their strength in the service sector, especially the Information Technology/Information Technology enabled Services (IT/ITeS) sector. This has helped India win the phrase "world's back office" for itself. In the current scenario, both countries will immensely benefit from a symbiotic association. Or, they could benefit from free trade principles using the concept of comparative advantage. However, India needs to take adequate steps in one aspect—the free trade can at times be detrimental to certain sectors of its domestic industry. Take the case of Chinese electronics equipments and Chinese solar panels. Given that these equipment manufacturers are heavily subsidized in China, the reduced cost of such items can be prohibitive to the fair growth of Indian industry. India and China have pledged to take the bilateral trade to USD 100 Billion by the year 2015. A cause of concern in this regard is that the Balance of Trade is skewed heavily in favour of China. This has been brought to the notice of the Chinese President in his current visit.

Another area of cooperation between the largest economy of Asia and its third largest economy is on the investment front. President Jinping has pledged an investment of USD 20 Billion in India in the coming 5 years. This is a big achievement. Perhaps the predicted reviving economic growth rates for India (by the International Monetary Fund and the World Economic Forum) coupled with the investor-friendly government fuelled by the new popularly-elected stable government  in India is to be credited for this.

Multilateral Cooperation

The BRICS grouping and the decision to establish a New Development Bank with a corpus of USD 100 Billion taken at the 2014 BRICS summit, the Contingency Reserve Arrangement to help the BRICS countries facing economic hassles—all seem to be developing countries' response to the Bretton Woods institutions, whose conditionality is perceived to be way too intrusive in the domestic sphere of the developing countries.

Climate Change talks have been an area of India-China solidarity via the BASIC grouping. The principle of "Common But Differentiated Responsibility" (CBDR) is a thread that binds the two countries on the pedestal of equitable development opportunities.

Further, India's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) may pave the way for forming a strong bonding with the Central Asian countries in a grouping which is free of western intervention. Right now, India, Iran and Pakistan are observers in SCO.

Land Boundary Dispute

This conundrum seems to be the hardest nut to crack. The recurrence of media reports about "Chinese intrusions" in the Ladakh area of Jammu & Kashmir is due to the different perceptions about the land boundary by India and China. Similarly, China's issuance of stapled visas to the residents of Arunachal Pradesh of India has been stridently condemned by the Indian government. India respects China's claims to the Tibet Autonomous Region and in no way officially supports any "government-in-exile" of Tibet formed in Dharamshala region of Himachal Pradesh (the current place of residence of the Dalai Lama) in India. Likewise, it expects a reciprocity from China with regard to Arunachal Pradesh. A ray of light is that a Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) has been signed between China and India. At the same time, India has learnt from the 1962 debacle and has started to increase its military capabilities in the mountainous terrain. India has taken a decision to raise and train a mountain strike corps of the army in the Arunachal Pradesh region. Similarly, it displayed its air capabilities when a C-130J Super Hercules aircraft made a successful landing at a high-altitude airfield in Ladakh region.

Cultural Cooperation

India and China traditionally shared links of Buddhism. Presently, the bonhomie between the Chinese President and the Indian PM at Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat was symbolic of Rabindranath Tagore's dreams of cosmopolitanism. This goes in line with the saying in one of the Indian Upanishads—"Ayam nijah paroveti ganana laghuchetasaam, udaarcharitaanaamtu vasudhaiva kutumbakam" (i.e., demarcating things as mine and thine denotes a narrow mentality; for those with a magnanimous personality, the world is a family). The Chinese first lady too seemed to enjoy the cultural programmes put forward for her by a school in Delhi. Chinese martial art form Tai-chi and India's Yoga have crossed borders to inspire the citizens of the other country. Then, the Chinese government decision to open up a new route to Kailash Mansarovar via Nathu-La in Sikkim will cement the ties of the two countries further.

According to analysts, India needs to improve the Chinese language education in its universities. Further, increased people-to-people contacts through visa liberalization regimes (e.g., a visa-on-arrival scheme) would go a long way in establishing Track 2 diplomatic dialogue between the two countries.

Speaking of people-to-people contacts makes me deviate slightly from the ongoing essay. I had an opportunity to meet two Chinese citizens and one South African citizen in 2012. In a way, we were informal representatives of three of the BRICS countries (it is sad that my general awareness was quite unsatisfactory back then). Though I had a limited interaction with them, I found all of them quite hard-working. As I reminisce those moments, I feel that people of two countries may be separated by artificial 'national boundaries', yet the feeling of humanity is natural and a very strong connecting thread.

Other Areas of Cooperation

China has also agreed to help in the establishment of a railway university in India. This is quite understandable given the Chinese engineering supremacy in bringing high-speed trains to the Xinjiang province and at the doorstep of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Shashi Tharoor has marvelled at the Chinese engineering feats in his book Pax Indica. India also needs to be proactive in getting water flow data in the Brahmaputra river from China, given the problems causes in Assam by the annual floods in this river. Talks have also taken place to achieve some deal on the civil-nuclear front. The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) corridor needs to be negotiated fast as that would open immense trade opportunities for India with the other countries of the ASEAN region.

India and China are the two most populous countries of the world. To overcome the Malthusian and/or climate change-induced concerns about the food security and to meet the energy security needs, cooperation needs to be present in sharing the agricultural best practices as well as in research and development of renewable energy. Joint oil exploration by the two countries can also be undertaken in Latin America, in Africa and in Myanmar.

India-China need to prevent the smuggling of rhinoceros horns in Chinese markets for Chinese traditional medicine systems as that leads to poaching of rhinoceroses in Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam, thereby reducing the mammal's population. Similarly, China and India need to cooperate to keep a check on the smuggling of Cordyceps sinensis ('caterpillar grass') in Chinese markets which (alongwith global warming) is a threat to its survival.

Terrorism and extremism is also a cause of concern for the two countries—Islamic fundamentalism in India (by Indian Mujahideen, Al-Qaeda, etc.) and Uighur extremism in Xinjiang province of China.

India and China are stakeholders in the democratization of internet governance (especially after the Edward Snowden revelations about the US National Security Agency's PRISM programme).

India also needs to learn from the way the Chinese athletes win Olympic medals with a militaristic zeal, whereas India stands behind even small countries such as Jamaica in this aspect.

Balancing Acts

Much has been said about the "string of pearls" theory by various foreign policy and defence analysts. It asserts that China has been developing ports along the South Asian countries (Kyaukpyu in Myanmar, Sonadia in Bangladesh, Hambantota in Sri Lanka and Gwadar in Pakistan), which might even serve as military bases, to encircle India. It is also a Chinese response to the US "pivot-to-Asia" policy—a move by the US to re-position its defence and maritime forces in the Asia-Pacific region—which China perceives to be aimed at 'China containment'. The Chinese have also proposed to start the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) project to increase trade along the Indian Ocean which, again, is being watched apprehensively by realists. India is also having concerns about media reports that China is going to help build two nuclear reactors in Pakistan.

If China has been the land of Sun-Tzu, India too has been home to Chanakya. To be on the safer side (should there be merit in these theories), India has gone for establishing cordial relations with Japan (with which China has a dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, where China has set-up an Air Defence Identification Zone) and with Vietnam and Philippines (with which China has disputes over Paracel Islands, Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea). Indian President, in his visit to Vietnam (concluded just before the Chinese President visited India) maintained that India stands for freedom of navigation in the seas. Then, India is slated to go for development of Chabahar port in Iran (which is a mere 76 km away from the Gwadar port). India also undertakes bilateral naval exercises with Singapore and Japan, bilateral army exercises with the US as well as with China and is soon going for India-Japan-US trilateral talks.

In this era of "complex interdependence" (conflict and cooperation), it is pertinent that India take pragmatic measures to ensure that the "Asian century" may indeed come while bringing equitable development to the developing countries. There shouldn't be a rise of new hegemons to usher in another round of global power politics.