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Hawks pecking at the brittle nerves of India
By Li Hongmei
China-Indo rivalry has again been hyped up recently by some American media as well as the hawkish media in India. But the China-India discord they singled out to cook up still fall into the empty political platitudesKashmir issues; the so-called China's "String of Pearls" to encircle India, and "the acute need for India-US cooperation to counterbalance China's presence in Indian Ocean"; and the legacies of border disputes and Tibet-related issues.
And this, actually in a similar vein to the just subdued but still simmering South China Sea disputes, is intentionally heated up by the Western media to drive a wedge between China and its neighbors, and is, in essence, the theory of "China Threat" in a new but more insidious formula.
The West has all along viewed the China-India relations with a complicated mindset, particularly at the time, when the old-line capitalist markets are on the uphill path to recovery, the emerging economies like China and India are well on their way to restoring the galloping growth rate, which has seen the respectively 8% and 7% for China and India. Out of jealousy or what else, the Western powers, with the century-old dominance over the world structure, would find it hard to face up to the bitter reality that the international political and economic layout is no more designed solely by the used-to-be powerful hands, but turns out a result combined with the nascent strength.
It is therefore highly understandable that the conventional powers attempt so desperately to strike a nerve with China-India relations, as they assume, by reopening the wound and repeatedly spraying salt into it, that the normal tempo of Sino-Indo relations would be dislocated and their hidden motive to borrow India's resentment and hand to contain China's rise, which also frays the nerves of the West world, would be fulfilled, all unnoticed.
Why the West inclines to make a big issue of China-India relations may also rest on the reality of the two Asian giants: When it comes to population, two countries stand out heads and shoulders above all others: India and China with over a billion people each. Additionally, economic growth is driving the rise of the two powers. Since 1978, when China had decided to partake in the world economic order, the country's economy has grown at fantastic speed. India's reforms, which first began to be implemented in the 1990s, are now bearing the fruits of similarly dizzying growth.
And what the West concerns most is that the trade relations between the two have all these years remained steadfast in development and improvement, albeit the occasional rubs and imbalances. The two sides have been always trying to settle the trade spats through dialogue and consultations, and are endeavoring to perfect the mechanism for more effective bilateral communications.
More over, the two governments have generally kept on good terms, even though the good old days of Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai (Indians and Chinese are brothers) in Nehru's day is already a golden memory in the diplomatic history. However, all this seems to just run counter to the "Cold War" mentality held obstinately by some Western powers. They would be more ready to accept the estranged, or even hostile China-India relations, given that India, in their eyes, is of one feather, being a capitalist democracy, while China is a socialist country with its own characteristics.
On top of that, to secure their access to Asia, and maintain their coveted preeminence over the region, the West has to pull one to its side to check and beat the other, and it bets on India. But the wise Indian government, walking on the tight rope between doves and hawks at home, is not so willing to place the China-India ties at stake, the time-honored bilateral relations entering its 60th anniversary, and keeping a far-reaching significance.
As a matter of fact, it is not China that intends to encircle India, but the West that is launching a preemptive encirclement round Asia, not physically but strategically.
It is perfectly obvious that China and India have not only the shared border, but beyond it, more common interests. And mutual trust is not just a have-to before achieving the win-win goal, but a great blessing to both peoples of 2.5 billion in all.
Li Hongmei's column--English--People's Daily Online
By Li Hongmei
China-Indo rivalry has again been hyped up recently by some American media as well as the hawkish media in India. But the China-India discord they singled out to cook up still fall into the empty political platitudesKashmir issues; the so-called China's "String of Pearls" to encircle India, and "the acute need for India-US cooperation to counterbalance China's presence in Indian Ocean"; and the legacies of border disputes and Tibet-related issues.
And this, actually in a similar vein to the just subdued but still simmering South China Sea disputes, is intentionally heated up by the Western media to drive a wedge between China and its neighbors, and is, in essence, the theory of "China Threat" in a new but more insidious formula.
The West has all along viewed the China-India relations with a complicated mindset, particularly at the time, when the old-line capitalist markets are on the uphill path to recovery, the emerging economies like China and India are well on their way to restoring the galloping growth rate, which has seen the respectively 8% and 7% for China and India. Out of jealousy or what else, the Western powers, with the century-old dominance over the world structure, would find it hard to face up to the bitter reality that the international political and economic layout is no more designed solely by the used-to-be powerful hands, but turns out a result combined with the nascent strength.
It is therefore highly understandable that the conventional powers attempt so desperately to strike a nerve with China-India relations, as they assume, by reopening the wound and repeatedly spraying salt into it, that the normal tempo of Sino-Indo relations would be dislocated and their hidden motive to borrow India's resentment and hand to contain China's rise, which also frays the nerves of the West world, would be fulfilled, all unnoticed.
Why the West inclines to make a big issue of China-India relations may also rest on the reality of the two Asian giants: When it comes to population, two countries stand out heads and shoulders above all others: India and China with over a billion people each. Additionally, economic growth is driving the rise of the two powers. Since 1978, when China had decided to partake in the world economic order, the country's economy has grown at fantastic speed. India's reforms, which first began to be implemented in the 1990s, are now bearing the fruits of similarly dizzying growth.
And what the West concerns most is that the trade relations between the two have all these years remained steadfast in development and improvement, albeit the occasional rubs and imbalances. The two sides have been always trying to settle the trade spats through dialogue and consultations, and are endeavoring to perfect the mechanism for more effective bilateral communications.
More over, the two governments have generally kept on good terms, even though the good old days of Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai (Indians and Chinese are brothers) in Nehru's day is already a golden memory in the diplomatic history. However, all this seems to just run counter to the "Cold War" mentality held obstinately by some Western powers. They would be more ready to accept the estranged, or even hostile China-India relations, given that India, in their eyes, is of one feather, being a capitalist democracy, while China is a socialist country with its own characteristics.
On top of that, to secure their access to Asia, and maintain their coveted preeminence over the region, the West has to pull one to its side to check and beat the other, and it bets on India. But the wise Indian government, walking on the tight rope between doves and hawks at home, is not so willing to place the China-India ties at stake, the time-honored bilateral relations entering its 60th anniversary, and keeping a far-reaching significance.
As a matter of fact, it is not China that intends to encircle India, but the West that is launching a preemptive encirclement round Asia, not physically but strategically.
It is perfectly obvious that China and India have not only the shared border, but beyond it, more common interests. And mutual trust is not just a have-to before achieving the win-win goal, but a great blessing to both peoples of 2.5 billion in all.
Li Hongmei's column--English--People's Daily Online
