know thy neighbor

WITH other reporters from China International Publishing Group I headed for India three weeks after the New Delhi BRICS summit and two days after the test firing of the country’s Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile.

These two events fully represent the opportunities and challenges facing China and India. The BRICS summit concluded with a joint declaration in which the five attending countries agreed to speak with one voice on a number of regional and global issues, such as on situations in the Middle East and Syria. Meanwhile, the Agni-V test firing received considerable press coverage in India, and many reports singled out the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai as being within reach of the long-range missile. Naturally, these reports were deemed provocative by the Chinese media and triggered public alarm in those cities.

Such odi et amo is not unusual in the relationship between these two neighboring giants, contact between whom stretches back to the second century B.C.

Sino-Indian relations in recent times have had their share of highlights, like the co-declaration of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (known in India as the Panchsheel) in 1954. There have also been difficulties, such as the border disputes in the 1960s. Nowadays, however, relations are strong. Politicians on both sides embrace the fact that these two emerging powers, whose combined population accounts for one third of humanity, need to work together.

Today, China is India’s largest trade partner. Bilateral trade hit US $61.7 billion in 2010, 20 times the volume one decade ago. Last year, trade grew further, reaching a record US $73.9 billion. Though China’s surplus in bilateral trade remained large at US $27 billion, India’s exports have grown at a strong 12.26 percent year on year. India’s share in China’s overall foreign trade is small but growing rapidly, rising to 3.8 percent last year from 2.06 percent in 2010.

Politically, the frequency of exchanges between the top leadership of the two countries has picked up in the new millennium. During Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to China in 2003, the two parties signed the Declaration on the Principles for Relations and Comprehensive Cooperation, pledging to promote a long-term constructive and cooperative

could do to better acquaint the country’s citizens with their next-door neighbor. Unfortunately, for many Chinese the first image that springs to mind at the mention of India is too often an overloaded bus or train with people sitting on top of carriages or clinging to door handles with their bodies perilously suspended in the air. We fix our eyes on the U.S., Europe and other conventional powers and don’t pay enough attention – except on border and military issues – to India and the other large emerging economies that constitute a crucial anchoring force for the teetering world economy. We look into the distance, ignoring our backyard.

In comparison with the 10,000 or more Indian students in China, the number of Chinese students in India is small – 1,600, according to the Chinese Students Union in New Delhi. Explaining this small presence, the union’s leaders cited several reasons, the first being little exposure to India at home. Others include on-the-ground disincentives, such as poor infrastructure, hot weather and visa difficulties.

Shri Manish Tewari, spokesperson for the Indian National Congress Party, says there should be exchanges on more regular basis between India and China.“One of the areas that the two can actively work together on is promoting understanding between young people, technicians, engineers, doctors and so on. We shouldn’t just talk at the level of political leadership.”

Changes to this effect are underway. Last year, as part of programs for the China-India Exchange Year, a delegation of 500 young Indians visited China. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao gave a welcome speech, saying that ambitious young people from the two countries should have a deep understanding of the strategic significance of China-India relations and possess a firm belief in peace, cooperation and mutual benefit. “I believe that when the youths of China and India join hands and work together, the sky of Asia will be clearer and the future will be brighter,” he concluded. Earlier this year a Chinese youth group of the same size paid a reciprocal visit to India.

Similarities, Disparities and Complementarities

As a first time visitor to India, I cautioned myself not to be like the blind men who try to learn what an elephant looks like by randomly running their hands over it and sharing their individual findings. This ancient parable, meaning do not look at the parts to make assumptions about the whole, is believed to have originated in India and has been for decades in primary school textbooks in China. It turns out that not making assumptions and having an open mind were critical for my own “journey of discovery” in India.

During the trip, I jotted down what I saw and thought everyday. One scribble from my notebook in New Delhi was:“Not yet seen a female driver.” But in Mumbai, I saw several, including a taxi driver. Also there were business ladies sitting in the back seat of limousines driven by men. One day I read in a news- paper a report on a survey that showed over 50 percent of Indian teenagers, both boys and girls alike, believe wife beating is justified, while on the opposite page ran a story about a leading scientist on Agni-V, a woman, who said science knows no gender. In our meetings in India we also met several successful women who occupied senior positions in prestigious institutions.

Worrying about dress codes and religious sensitivities (India is said to have all major existing religions on earth) in a country widely regarded as conservative, I wore dresses below the knee and covered my shoulders and arms. Later I found that although the Sari is still the choice for many Indian women, it’s not unusual to find Lady Gaga-esque singers on TV. The only explanation for such supposed paradoxes is that India is a country of incredible diversity and complexity, where tradition and modernity coexist.

No visitor would write home about India’s poor infrastructure, sardinecan crowds or the appalling conditions in which its homeless multitudes live. It took us six hours to drive from New Delhi to Taj Mahal, 220 kilometers away. This trip would take two hours in China. But as a citizen of a developing country myself, I know the tangible meaning of catchwords like “developing” and “emerging” behind impressive annual GDP growth figures.

That these problems exist is not to say that the authorities in India are not doing anything about them. Two overpasses were under construction just near our hotel in Mumbai to deal with its traffic problem, and we heard the details of other road-building projects, TV signal coverage extension schemes, free lunch and tuition exemption programs for schoolchildren and affordable housing projects. All these have equivalents in China; the countries are on a shared development path.

With many similarities and faced with common challenges in development, China and India share views on many international issues and are committed to the vision of building a multi-polarized world. Our similarities consolidate the common ground between us, while disparities spell the potential for complementarity. The world has enough room for the development of both China and India, as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said during his visit to India. Cooperation should be natural.