


India and China

Friend, enemy, rival, investor

How can India make its economic relations with China less lopsided?

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Readers' comments




I need to address a few issues that I came across with some of the comments here. First off, It is a joke to suggest that China is prosperous! An overwhelming majority of Chinese people are poor. India's poverty is just more visible in the media, cuz of the structure of the government.

Secondly, to all those clowns who say things like "foreigners ruled India for 100s of years", I would strongly suggest that they read up on the history of India - the most influential civilization in the history of humanity. I will never understand why Indians aren't more vocal about this. I will type it in CAPS to make my point more clear: THE WHOLE OF INDIA HAS NEVER BEEN CONQUERED IN THE LONG AND PROUD HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S OLDEST CIVILIZATION! A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF INDIA (MAINLY NORTH AND CENTRAL INDIA) FELL TO THE MUGHALS, WHO CREATED THE RICHEST EMPIRE THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN. A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF INDIA (AROUND 60% OF INDIA'S LAND AREA AND AROUND 55% OF INDIA'S POPULATION) WAS "ADMINISTERED" BY LONDON FOR AROUND 75 YEARS!! So please, take it easy with the nonsense! INDIA IS THE OLDEST AND THE OLDEST CONTINUING CIVILIZATION IN THE WORLD. Remember that before you excrete words on a public forum. And to all those Chinese fanatics on this forum, research the following quote:

Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA:


It is inevitable that India will become a superpower once again! So get used to it and save your energy.

rep3 in reply to indica

a) I dispute your notion on India's soft power. Most of the countries in South Asia don't like India. The countries that do are half a world away using India to counter balance China. Power is the ability to make others do what you want, not being told what to do.

b) I am specifically speaking of Aksai Chin which suddenly appeared on Indian maps after mid 50s. India claims it belonged do some maharaja which I find strange and convenient since it lays on China's side of the Himalaya and was unknown to the British previously.

c)George Fernandes who said "India's enemy number one" after Pokhran nuclear tests.

d and e)Google "India" and "great power" it appears frequently on numerous Indian media

f)I would argue China, though the migrant worker system has managed inclusive growth. Even through the migrants earn little by western standards and even coastal Chinese standards, they earn a lot compared to farming. This in turn is raising their living standard within a generation. India in contrast has opted for a "service economy" this creates jobs for the college graduates but leaves out those who farm the country side. The difference is the scale of job creation and the ability to include those of lower education.

Hyperspacer in reply to Unclear Nuclear

"It is however India who should make the first move with China assuring India a reciprocal reply" and why is that?

Because vast tract of Chinese territories is still occupied by India. I am talking about South Tibet, which the British Raj called it the NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) and the India government renamed it to Arunachal Pradesh and made it a state in 1987.

PL123 in reply to Communal Award

America should break up India: American strategist
America should break up China: American strategist
America should break up Russia: American strategist
America should break up EU: American strategist
America should break up Africa into thousand pieces: American strategist

Mr. Cave Man in reply to Communal Award

Thats' one way of using statistical jugglary to trump common sense.Even a kid could tell that If Indians/Chinese print more of their domestic currency ( Rupee/Yuan) , that alone won't change the figures you're showing as an increase in supply of domestic currency would bring down its real value or its value in terms of $ thus nullifying the effect of greater cash numbers.

Perhaps you would like Indians/ Chinese to start printing US $ for themselves , but that would be illegal . Only legal way out is real growth of what we produce and more uniform distribution of this growth among all sections of people so as to avoid "1% & the rest" problem.

khichuri1 in reply to Inshai

If you read George Perkovjich's authoritative detailed study on the Indian nuclear program, USSR didn't gift nuclear technology to India. More importantly, India did not export nuclear technology to other countries. (And of course Pakistan doesn't think of Russia as a great friend, because of Russia's close relationship with India).

yankeedude in reply to mommus

Airbus's supply chain come over worldwide, but NO India(only Bangalore service center), thousands sub-contractor made part from France, Germany, Sweden, UK, Russia, Canada, Spain, China, Japan...etc, assembly only located in France, Germany and China. in next 20-30 years only 3 country has technology, funding, and manpower to compete world fastest computer: USA, China and Japan, 95% assembly robots of US big 3 vehicle manufacturer are made in Japan, so it's pretty pale to point China to use American chip build it's own computer system.


In my view, and I am an Indian, most commentators on this post overstate the problem of casteism in India. Casteism was historically a very great evil but the greatest problems India is facing today are income inequality and the all-pervasive corruption. Casteism is a very significant reason for income inequality. But the terrible policies pursued by Indian leaders in the 70s and 80s were, in my view an even greater evil. This income inequality is entrenched due to the corrupt, Byzantine bureaucracy of India which implements the pseudo-socialist policies of India's elected politicians. I say pseudo-socialist because these policies are ideally socialist but in reality they only increase corruption in addition to increasing India's already burgeoning fiscal deficit.
The income inequality in turn leads to a lower level of education among the poorer sections of the society which is the crux of the problem. Then unscrupulous politicians take advantage of these poor, uneducated people and advance those same policies which maintain the status-quo and the vicious cycle continues.
The only way to break free from this cycle is to somehow ensure that everyone gets a quality education which would increase public awareness and lead to Indian people making better use of their democracy.


This is an ostensibly biased article, probably sponsored by the investment council of China, aimed to directly influence international opinion on India and indirectly exert pressure on India's own policy-makers to open doors to Chinese investment. The article terms India's policies protectionist on various counts and does not even make a mention of China's artificial suppression of its own currency and rampant government subsidies to boost exports, in an attempt to drive international competition out of the market! Tells us a thing or two about the 'independence' of media and its clandestine agenda..

Indicatoro in reply to guest-isoliae

Views such as represented in you post is what's have been keeping India in the dark and has kept her being so backward and destitute as compared with advanced nations, even China and South Korea.

Citing foreigners' comment of no consequence about how great India once was to belittle others is such a pitiful display of your lack of self confidence in India.

Views like yours is holding back India to always playing second banana to major nations (whoever they are throughout the times) in the international arena since her colonial time, and especially today. India should deserve better than this.

new student 2009

hi, I like your caricature in the article. I have it printed and framed in my workplace. The purpose is not to show China is so much bigger than India in international trading, but to remind me even bigger ship may appear than China if Chinese don't work hard.


Amartya Sen, the author of "Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny"
Read it once, only have a fading memory of the book. The one thing that made a particular impression was when his Oxford teacher scolded him, "you Indian are too rude, Japanese are too polite, and Chinese are just right."
Just memorizing this defeat the purpose of his book, but can't help it, it's so catchy. (>_<)


The trade problem between China and India can only be resolved if India open up the country not just to China but also to other foreign investors. But that won't happen because the messy political system in India that tend to sacrifice the long term prospect of the nation for short term political gains. While there are trade barriers in China, overall China is probably the most open country to trade in Asia except Singapore and Hong Kong.

indica in reply to kommonsenses


'hinduism extremists' - I am not sure whom you are referring to, but if you are thinking of the RSS or BJP, they do not hold any anti-China views that is over and above what ordinary or average Indians hold.
In fact, Narendra Modi, the relatively successful Chief Minister of the State of Gujarat, who is an important leader of the BJP party, is pro-China. He has so far hosted two trade conferences in which he was keen to get Chinese business persons to attend. He visited China last year with many pragmatic business proposals.
Gujarati business people are the Chinese of India. They talk less but do more. They can calculate percentages as fast as the Chinese business people.

'hereditary caste culture'.... Sociologists have observed that at the socio-economic level caste as a factor is diminishing fast, although people belonging to the 'lower' castes still constitute a majority of the poorer sections.

At the top end of Indian society, you cannot assume today, as you could even 30 years ago, that every important or rich person belongs to a 'higher' caste.

The majority of the Political Class in India today, consists of people from the socalled 'backward' or 'most backward' castes. For instance, the most successful Chief Minister I mentioned above, Narendra Modi, is from a 'backward caste'.

So, if you look closely at all levels of Indian society, you may find that caste does not work in the way you have assumed.

There are REAL CHANGES for more equality.

Unlike China getting rid of the "top people" in a revolution, India marks them down more gradually through 'reservations' in favour of the 'lower' caste which, unfortunately, work against the 'higher' castes.

In public and commercial life, Indian society is NOT as stratified as you think.

khichuri1 in reply to rep3

According to the latest NSS data (and using the World Bank's $1.25 poverty line), around 30% of Indians are below the poverty line. India's boom hasn't been restricted to cities- in fact rural-urban inequality has fallen in recent decades - but a poor country needs to grow fast for several decades to eliminate poverty and India is not yet there. The middle class has grown extremely fast in India in the last two decades. Income inequality is higher in China - though many other kinds of inequalities are higher in India. If I remember correctly from a recent opinion survey, I think half of the Indian people have a positive view of China.

Mr. Cave Man in reply to Communal Award

Aha ! Now you intend to use financial jargon as a smokescreen for your ignorance. Let me make it simpler again. Money supply ( M0 or any other) in a country should be quoted in domestic currency and not in any foreign currency (e.g. $ in this case)as Indian/Chinese use cash and coins of Rupee and Yuan and not $ in their countries.

Even if you plan to apply exchange rate to get the value of money supply in India/China in terms of $ , you'll need to somehow get the real exchange rate data instead of nominal exchange rate. This is because of different price level. For instance , I can get a nice one time meal in around 50 Indian Rupees in India but that may not be possible in 1$ ( approx. Nominal exchange rate of Indian rupee) if I were to be in US.

Ever heard of the phrase " KISS" ?


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