Unraveling India’s China Challenge | EXTRACT

India’s China Challenge tells the story of a complex political relationship, and how China – and its leading opinion-makers – view India. It looks at the economic dimensions and cultural connect, and the internal political and social transformations in China that continue to shape both the country’s future and its relations with India.

Read this extract to find out more about journalist Ananth Krishnan’s attempt at unpacking India’s China challenge, which is four-fold:

The title, India’s China Challenge, might be interpreted in two ways – something that struck me only belatedly. The first, and the way I intended, refers to the challenges posed to India by China’s rise. It might, however, also be interpreted as the challenge that India poses to China. After all, there is perhaps no other emerging country, one with a political system that couldn’t be more different, that could potentially offer a credible alternative vision to China, as I argue in the section ‘Diplomacy’. Whether India can actually do so remains uncertain. What is very certain though is the immediate challenge that our country faces from China, which is the focus of this book.

So, what is India’s China challenge?

In Part I, I look at the political challenge of dealing with the rise of a one-party state – one that is now keen to offer its authoritarian–capitalist model to the world and shape global institutions in line with its own values. It is hence more important than ever to understand what those values are. Chapter 1 looks at the China model and how Mao’s legacy continues to shape the country’s politics. In Chapter 2, I look at the rise of Xi Jinping and the changes unfolding in China in the wake of his ascension, from the centralization of power to an increasingly prominent role for a political party that earlier preferred to pull the strings from behind the scenes. These are trends that the coronavirus pandemic, which even China’s President Xi Jinping acknowledged had posed ‘a major test of China’s system and capacity for governance’, has accelerated. In Chapter 3, I look at the battle of ideas and the role of ideology in Chinese politics.

Part II examines the economic challenge – of both learning from China’s remarkable and unique growth story, and navigating an increasingly lopsided economic relationship driven by Indian dependencies on Chinese manufacturing, an issue of increasing salience in the wake of the pandemic. Chapter 4 looks at the manufacturing miracle and how Chinese supply chains became so integral to the Indian economy. Chapter 5 examines how urbanization has transformed the country, and the lessons to be drawn from both the promises and perils of China’s experience. In Chapter 6, I look at the emergence of ‘tech China’, and the contradictions of an innovation power bound by suffocating systems of censorship and surveillance, as well as the growing reliance on technology as a driver of both growth and governance – another trend that the pandemic has hastened.

Part III examines the third major challenge, which is manifested in India’s difficult diplomatic and military engagement with China. Chapter 7 looks at the emergence of an increasingly assertive and confident China under Xi, and how it is looking to play an ever greater role on the world stage – in many ways to India’s detriment. Chapter 8 examines the complicated dynamic of the India–China relationship, and how this sensitive balance is increasingly tilting towards competition and not cooperation. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 assess two of the most important drivers of that trend: the boundary dispute and a deepening China–Pakistan nexus.

In Part IV, I look at the challenge of history – of the unresolved boundary and the 1962 war – and why settling the question of the past is so crucial to this relationship’s future. In Part V, I try to present a different perspective of China as seen from its restless frontiers, which convey a sense of a political model that is far less resilient – and far less confident – than it might appear to be on the surface.

Tying the four challenges together is what is in my view, perhaps the greatest challenge of them all: the conceptual challenge of reassessing how we think about and engage with our most important neighbour. This is a question I try to address throughout the book, as I make a case for re-examining some of our most deeply held conventional wisdoms on everything from the China model and the reasons behind its economic success, to the boundary dispute and the war.

During my time in China, I was fortunate to meet many people who helped me challenge my own deeply held views, and this book is filled with their voices. In the last part, ‘Portraits’, I share six of those voices – people who are in their own way defying convention. Their stories may appear disconnected, but binding them are surprising links to India.

Even as I write this in the summer of 2020, China is on the mind of many Indians. Two events – the COVID-19 pandemic and the most serious violence on the India–China border since 1967 – have only reminded us of the impact this neighbour has on our lives, albeit in the worst ways possible. As I write, India is still in the grip of confronting both crises. The prospect of a conflict with China no longer feels far-fetched and remote, but immediate and real. It shouldn’t have to take multiple problems for us to pay attention to a country that impacts our lives in more ways than we realize.