30 years ago India and China were on par in terms of their economies. Now China is nearing superpower status, while India still has serious issue with illiteracy, poverty and sanitation.
The difference between India and China is that the Chinese are not only playing the nation building / geo politics game to be a contender, but rather to win. This is alarming to the west, realizing how quickly China is rising in various fields, they're horrified of being surpassed by China.
The Indians still have an inferiority complex regarding the white man and the west, whereas many Chinese believe that they're culturally superior to the decadent west and that they can become the worlds leading premier nation.
China is a strong, independent nation. India takes orders from the west on command and even before Trump says jump, they say "how high sir?" It's terrible because even when the Indians have leverage in certain situations, they still sell themselves short.
Just look at Chabahar port. The US under Trumps maximum pressure campaign against Iran, wanted India to pull out of any and all agreements between India-Iran. Of course India could have used their market size alone to convince the US to back off regarding Chabahar. They could have simply said "Iran/Chabahar is a long term strategic bulwark/counter against Pakistan" They could have easily set it as a red line, but instead they simply bowed down to Trump.
I mean even Iraq made the US back off regarding energy deals with Iran, because the Iraqis simply told the US that Iran, being Iraq's next door neighbor, is too vital for Iraq to simply cut all ties. However the Indians basically bowed down to America and China took full advantage.
Chabahar was going to be vital for India to send freight directly from the Indian Ocean / Persian Gulf, north through Iran, into various markets, leading to Europe. Now that China has moved in on Chabahar, India will have two options, send freight using the much longer route, via Suez, or send freight via the Persian Gulf / Iran with permission from China.
That's the difference between a sovereign nation, an independent nation and a subservient vassal state. Iran under the Shah, I mean if the revolution never would have happened, it could be argued that today Iran would be more advanced economically, however Iran would simply be another subservient US vassal, taking orders on command, rather than making decisions independently.
Yes right now Iran's economy is going through a hard time, but the Iranian leadership are thinking of the long term. I mean it's easy to be a slave and slaves are always more comfortable and eat better than those who fight for their independence and freedom.
China went through a hard time for decades. I mean until 1970, the UN still recognized Taiwan as the rightful China and Taiwan even occupied China's seat at the UN until then. Looking at the big picture, long term, Iran in the next few decades, I believe that Iran's future will be much brighter than most nations in the region. Say what you will but at the end of the day there are no US bases in Iran, no foreign troops and Iran is not taking orders from any nation.
A few decades ago, half of Iran's population was illiterate and Iran was not producing much. Now Iran is producing everything under the sun and advancing in many fields while many western puppet states can't even build their own toilets. Look at the Saudis for example, hundreds of billions spent on US weapons, but their army is embaressing. They can't even defeat the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the poorest Arab country in the world.
As far as Iran-China relations go, Iran since the revolution, has proven that it is a reliable partner. Whether it is with Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran does not abandon its friends. From an economic standpoint, China-Iran trade is a fraction of China-US trade. However recently the US has shown its true colors and now that China is about to surpass the west, you see anti Chinese rhetoric and sentiment rising in the west.
In this context Iran can be a reliable partner to China is various fields, whether its cooperation in military, economic or scientific fields. The Persian Gulf Arabs will turn their back on China at the flick of a finger from their western masters, but Iran will stand firm and will not rescind on its commitments.
Only time will tell, but in the context of global geopolitics, countries like Iran, Russia, China can form mutually beneficial, long term collective agreements that entail cooperation and mutual prosperity for extended periods of time.
Also China value Iran much more.
Iran is oil exporter for India, as well as balancer against Gulf countries, and Pakistan.
India play the Iran card to threaten Gulf countries to keep silence on Kashmir curfew and lock down.
But when US under Trump administration threaten India for Iran oil import, India backed off immediately.
US-India is way more important than Iran-India relationship. India can not bear the US-India relationship damage for Iran's sake.
Iran is more important for China. China see Iran as pivot of ME, an independent player in ME. None of other countries in ME are independent, all of them relies on west, say it KSA, Iraq, Syria, Egypt. Iran is the only one who choose what to do by herself.
So there are mutual interest and cooperation between Iran and China. While other ME countries have to obey or follow western rules.
By and large, ME is west play ground, those countries are toys.
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