Op-Ed Contributors
Hopes of accord for new titans
By Fu Xiaoqiang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-02 06:34
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Editor's note: The emerging of China and India will significantly change the world and build a stronger Asia, but when they are accelerating their steps, the Sino-India relations are also facing some challenges. Both sides should strive for consensus and strengthen the cooperation.
Two most populous countries are bound together in building a more powerful voice globally and in promoting a stronger Asia
The great challenge that lays ahead for China and India as they celebrate their 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties this year is learning to work side by side as their relationship evolves.
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With their economic momentums, China and India are playing important roles in resuscitating the global economy. After seeing China's achievements, it's easy to imagine India, in the throes of poverty 20 years ago, becoming one of the fastest growing countries in the world.
China and India have both stepped into crucial periods of industrialization. They have initially exercised measures for sustainable growth, such as increasing capacity for investment and transferring their labor forces from the countryside to the cities on a massive scale. China and India can never return to an agricultural economy. The global financial crisis that began in the US has taken its toll but it has been a blessing in disguise for the accelerated development of China and India. Their economies have brought the world out of the financial crisis.
In the next few years, with China and India's accelerated industrialization, each will step into a period of large-scale consumption. But there is competition between them: The nation that first achieves an economic reconstruction and is able to shift from an economic focus of quantity to quality will take the lead. China and India are both in a period of social and economic change and problems will arise. But the problems will never be that drastic if both economies continue their directions of development.
Considering the overlaps in energy, resources and foreign interests, disputes about energy and resources between the two nations will happen, but as India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said recently, the world is big enough for the co-development of China and India. At the regional level, China and India have many overlaps of interest in the neighboring regions in southeast and central Asia. Both must work to expand their influence on the political and economic stages in the Asian and Pacific regions.
If we are talking about their spheres of influence across oceans, the contest between China and India is split along two lines: China's hand goes further into the Indian Ocean to ensure the security of the maritime channel. It has sent its troops to help in the crackdown on pirates. India seems to go deep into the "backyard" of China by going eastward into the Pacific Ocean. Its naval maneuvers with the US and Japan have also increased.
Since 2009, trade disputes, a project to build a dam on the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Dalai Lama issue, territorial issues, Pakistan's counterterrorism situation and Nepal's domestic problems have all become serious challenges to their relationship. But the relationship is nonetheless stable.
As the two biggest developing countries and two most important emerging powers in the world, cooperation is what each is hoping to attain, especially as each country adjusts their global perspectives. Though competition, even disputes, is unavoidable, it's crucial for both sides to cooperate on a series of ongoing challenges.
In the future, China and India may encounter new challenges because of nontraditional security issues, such as water resource disputes. Media in India have overstressed China's development and use of water in Tibet. They have even claimed that a "water war" will break out between China and India.
China has also criticized India's water transfer between the north and south parts of the country as well as the nation's inland rivers' networking projects because of the tendency for India to build dams on the east section of the disputed border area between China and India. The construction of the dam may flood some parts of the upriver Linzhi region in Tibet that belongs to China, and may also endanger the ecology of Bangladesh.
As the two biggest ancient civilizations in the world, China and India should strive for consensus. The common interests of China and India overweigh their differences and disputes.
China and India have the same or similar fundamental interests in at least three aspects: First, both are developing countries that insist on independent diplomatic policies. They share the common task of promoting a "South-South" cooperation and strengthening "South-North" dialogues. Second, the two countries are both emerging powers with massive potential to cooperate on many issues. They also have leverage to break away from the old global power alignment. Both are striving for more sway internationally and for a multi-polar world. Common interests on major issues such as climate change, energy security and a reform of the international financial system are now more closely linked. Third, both are Asian powers that have the same responsibility and similar goals in maintaining Asia's overall interests. Each wants Asia to rise and they want to strengthen regional cooperation.
Each will continue to face new problems about water but they should break from the exclusive and predatory tradition of the West's hegemony. They should take a tolerant and modest attitude, which is the core of oriental wisdom. The two should seize on the opportunity of their 60th anniversary to solve bilateral issues in a rational and sincere way. China and India should look to cooperate at the international level and devise a general plan to settle disputes between each other.
The author is a researcher with China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
(China Daily 04/02/2010 page8)
