June 2013

June 2013 • ` 100

TO GO FORWARD

WE MUST LOOK BACK The farther backward you can look the farther forward you can see, Winston Churchill once famously said. This can't be truer for IndiaChina relations steeped in history.

Two Locomotives

Chugging on Track

Higher Education

Breaking the Barrier

Deng Xiaoping

A Daughter’s Memoirs

CHINESE

FILM FESTIVAL 2013

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Vol 1, Issue 5, June 2013 Editor-in-ChiEf Mohammed Saqib Editor Prashun Bhaumik ExECutivE Editor Urmila Rao

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Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent charge), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India*

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Deciphering Li Keqiang MoUs On his first overseas trip, the new Premier of People’s Republic of China, Li Keqiang, visited India. Needless to say, choosing India to visit over other countries was a strategic move by China. But that apart, in his very first visit, the Premier was able to strike an emotional chord with India. Besides signing eight MoUs in several fields- which was encouraging to India businesses and corporate houses- he boldly touched upon contentious issues in his public speech.

None of these MoUs were path-breaking. However, they did indicate China’s political will to increase cooperation at various levels. If MoUs are implemented in true spirit, some efforts will help narrow India-China trade deficit. As per March 2012 data, India’s trade deficit to China stood $ 40 billion.

Li not only talked about trade deficiency but also showed interest in opening up of markets. A positive sign was an agreement on the trade in buffalo meat, fishery products and feed ingredients aimed at strengthening of minimum safety and hygiene requirements. India currently exports buffalo meat to the tune of $3.2 billion to more than 65 countries. But China is not a major market yet. Most of the Indian buffalo meat instead lands up in China getting smuggled via Vietnam.

It is hoped that the agreement will open direct export of buffalo meat from India to China. If that happens it will help India narrow its trade deficit with China as the market will see more number of players who will be engaged in healthy competition. One of the most important and new aspect in the MoU was sharing of technology in the field of agriculture. In diplomatic circles, discussions on agriculture have almost always stood neglected. But a renewed attention on the aspect of agriculture and technology transfer is heartening. Improved technology will benefit Indian farmers who still largely use traditional methods of irrigation.

Li addressed the contentious issue related to Brahmaputra river dam projects as well. A MoU signed by Ministry of Water Resources from both the countries will, hopefully bring much needed transparency on the water diversion issue.

India can now be aware of the flow of water as China opens up to providing India with information on water level, discharge and rainfall. This form of transparency is warranted.

A Joint Working Group to coordinate translation and publication of 25 books of classic and contemporary works from either side in each other’s language is an encouraging move that will give a boost to Sino-India cultural relationship. ICEC has been committed towards improving cultural relationship for long; by way of organizing Chinese Spring festivals and recently, a Chinese movie week.

The MoU on the concept of twin city is good and should be given more shape.

The establishment of three Working groups - trade promotion, economic and trade planning cooperation, and trade statistical analysis- hopefully will do a good job of providing best of services in these fields.

Li has tried to connect with India at all levels; people, government, civil society and military. However, there is no clarity on processes yet, for average Indian medium and small scale entrepreneurs who want to do business in China. Currently, the processes are opaque and are mired in bureaucratic hassles. There is a maze of clearances required with regard to licenses and certifications and no clarity as to which office/s or department/s is responsible for giving the necessary approvals.

Sometimes, obtaining licenses take several weeks or months, even years.

For instance, if an Indian buffalo meat exporter tries to make his legal presence in Chinese market, there are no proper procedural guidelines. Our experience speaking with some of the potential exporters have shown that they had to run pillar to post to get the necessary clearances. In frustration, some exporters have simply given up on the idea.

There should be an Indo-China cooperation Committee or Forum, which should monitor the progress of work on these eight MoUs. Besides, the Cooperation Committee should also facilitate speedy approvals of licenses. This would in the strategic interest of both the countries.

CONTENTS

4

Feedback

6

Brief News

piLgrimAge

26

8

Chugging on Track The two great locomotives of Asia must work together to propel the global train through its current travails and thereby fulfill the DengRajiv dream to create an Asian century that can reinvigorate the entire world.

30

China brakes

with ICEC, Mr. Naidu shared his aim to encourage Chinese business enterprises to consider India as an investment destination. His efforts include promoting Chinese exporters to invest in manufacturing in India, working with Chinese universities to have India Chairs, encouraging tie-ups in skills development as well as promoting Indian culture and heritage. Mr.Naidu also clarified that the Indian Embassy’s trade dispute advisory on its website is not intended to scare Indian companies from doing business with China, but encourage them to adopt safe trade practices.

pArTnership in higher educATion

Hark! The Golden era

Steamy Stuff

Panchsheel Power

excLusive: down memorY LAne: deng xiAoping

41

A Daughter’s Journey Deng Rong , daughter of Deng Xiaoping (China’s reformist leader who pioneered ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and promoted socialist market economy) pens her father’s experiences in her book, Deng Xiaoping and the Cultural Revolution. The book, first published in China 2000, has been translated and published in other languages. It is being translated into Hindi by ICEC. We bring our readers excerpts.

province profiLe

56

Yo! Yunnan Yúnnán has some of the most magical and diverse scenery in China and is endowed with rich deposits of minerals. Yunnan is the southwestern-most province in China, with the Tropic of Cancer running through it.

heALThcAre

20 inTerview

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Born in the same cradle the two ancient civilisations have followed separate courses, which is natural. But it is time to draw upon the common past to build a lasting future.

32 |2| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

Breaking the perception barrier India and China must not lose sight of the enormous potential and synergy for partnership in higher education.

cover sTorY

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Together, leaders of India and China can construct a Panchsheel for a new time.

China’s tilt toward consumption-led growth is good news for India and the global economy.

14

BeYond The greAT wALL

poLicY

Lower growTh pLAnned

12

Go chugging on Buddha’s footsteps Today, Buddhism is associated more with countries such as Japan, China and Tibet, but the thrill of following the Buddhist trail through the land of its origin, remains an unforgettable experience.

Two LocomoTives of AsiA

Wuxi New District. Present across 100 locations already, Raghavan hopes to expand NIIT’s presence in China on a much bigger scale.

He shares with Urmila Rao, NIIT’s business strategy, his vision for further expansion and the mantra.

It’s time we saw each other through our own eyes, not the West On a recent trip to China, the India-China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC) team caught up with K. Nagaraj Naidu, Consul General of Guangzhou, China. The Indian Consulate in Guangzhou has jurisdiction over seven of China’s provinces including Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hunan, Fujian, Hainan and Guangxi. In a freewheeling interview

Not in Good Health Healthcare has emerged as one of the largest service sectors in India.

India is committed to injecting huge public funds into health care but services are far from adequate. There is thus a large scope for the sector to attract foreign investment, technology and resources.

emerging mArkeTs

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Entry Rules

In today’s global scenario, there is a need to understand how to play the game.

60

Events

    inTer view

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NIIT will be all over China’s hot spots As the head of Career Building Solutions of NIIT, G Raghavan, has been associated with China as a consultant to the Government of

62

Chinese Spring Festival 2013 Workshop on doing Business with China First Abid Hussain Memorial Lecture Launch of ‘Cinasthana Today’

Exhibitions & Trade show In India & In China

missing pieces

64

It is time

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |3|

f e e d b a c k are a fairly costly enterprise, which wastes a lot of scarce financial resources farmers could benefit from. For example, the funds can be diverted in educating our farmers and making them agriculturally aware of the new practices that are being followed in developed economies. The farmers from these nations are technically far advanced and far more competitive. In India, we need to prepare farmers to the new challenges and make them globally competitive and this won’t be possible if we keep on giving our farmers subsidies. It is no less than a death knell for our farmers in the long run.

Satyen Mishra, Gurgaon.

Subsidies The author S Mahendra Dev rightly mentions in his article ‘Let it Grow’ (December 2012) that subsidies need to be reduced in agriculture. Subsidies are fiscally unsustainable and encourage misuse of resources. In my opinion, subsidies should be done away with completely. Administratively subsidies

|4| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

The Billion Questions The article ‘Feeding a populous country’ (December 2012) provided me with a lot of insight on how the world’s most populous country has been rethinking on their use of agricultural land. It is interesting to know how China is now keeping a check on their land use. Population can be strength in one sense, but it can pose problems too. The challenge is to feed a billion mouths. It is just not about feeding but also providing

nutritional food to people. The disturbing part, however, is that increasing industrialisation is claiming arable land. The article was very informative in providing answers to questions which are now becoming important for countries that have huge populations.

Akhil Menon, Bangalore.

TVEs Miracle The article on the Township Village Enterprises by Shawahiq Siddiqui in the December issue made for a good read. It was interesting to learn the structure of TVEs and their role in triggering the rural growth in China.

India which currently faces problems of high unemployment, a steady decline in growth rates can definitely learn from the Chinese experience. In the face of distress migration by rural folk to the cities and the increasing inability of cities to cope with this tremendous influx, the model can help bring about rapid and positive changes in rural India. The article explores the link between TVEs and local governments, the legal framework, contributions to the economy and the reasons for success. As the author points out, India can gain some learning from this model and contextualise it for successful implementation in India.

Ayaz Siddiqui, Mumbai

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | NEWS

India will not be used as tool to contain China: Indian PM

terrorism issues, the dialogue included issues related to cyber security. An Indian delegation led by Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Navtej Sarna, held talks with his Chinese counterparts. This annual meeting has become a key platform for the two countries to exchange views related to terrorism that has emerged as a threat to both the countries. Both the countries showed interest in trying to coordinate on this issue.

I

n a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Durban, China’s new Leader Xi Jinping made a pitch for India and China to boost military contact and deepen trust. He also called on both sides to “continue to safeguard peace in their border areas and prevent the issue from affecting bilateral relations.”

Mr Xi said, “China, which regards its ties with India as one of the most important bilateral relationship, commits itself to pushing forward the two countries' strategic cooperative partnership.” Mr Singh replied, “India adheres to an independent foreign policy” and “will not be used as a tool to contain China.”

New President, old policy

I

n his first policy statement on India, China’s new president Xi Jingping said that China wants to improve economic relations and maintain the uneasy pre-2008 status quo on strategic disputes with India. In this context Xi proposed a five-point policy on India that included maintaining strategic communication and bilateral relations, expanding the win-win cooperation in infrastructure, mutual investment and other areas, strengthening of cultural ties, expansion, coordination and collaboration in multilateral affairs and accommodation and proper handling of problems and differences existing between the two countries. However, Mr Xi appeared less willing to discuss about complicated issues such as border disputes, transboundary rivers and China's ongoing projects in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir.

Fast growth to continue, says Xi

A China and India to invest big in KZN

T

he BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa proved to be beneficial for Dube Trade port as India and China plans to invest huge amounts and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa is set to be the main beneficiary. The Shanghai Pengxin Group said it plans to invest $300 million in South Africa and about half of this has been earmarked for KZN as a part of a joint venture with the black economic empowerment company BEK holdings. Investment in KZN will unlock opportunities in hotel industry, infrastructure and agro-processing sectors. The Indian conglomerate Action Group signed an agreement with Dube Trade Port to develop a “mega industrial integrated township” in the planned “aerotropolis”.

India-China counter terrorism dialogue in Beijing

T

he issue of the US pulling out from Afghanistan next year led to the annual counter terrorism dialogue in Beijing between India and China. Besides counter |6| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

t the Asia Annual Conference 2013, more than 30 foreign and domestic business leaders met at the Boao Forum for Asia which is the most prestigious and premier forum in Asia for leaders in government, business and academia. At the forum China’s President Xi Jinping said that China will grow relatively quickly and its market will be open and fair. “China economy will go upwards instead of going downwards. China has a bright economic future and will maintain a relatively high speed of growth through its efforts,” Xi said. The country needs to improve the quality and efficiency of its economy by emphasizing on green and low carbon development to achieve economic sustainability.

India, China to be biggest investors by 2030: World Bank

I

ndia and China will be the biggest investors by 2030, accounting for 38 percent of the global gross investment and almost half of all the world manufacturing investment, says the World Bank.

“In the gradual convergence scenario, in 2030, China will save far more than any other developing country - $9

trillion in 2010 dollar terms - with India a distant second at $1.7 trillion, surpassing the levels of Japan and the United States in the 2020s,” the World Bank says in a report.

China will account for 30 percent of global investment in 2030, with Brazil, India and Russia together accounting for another 13 percent. In terms of volumes, investment in the developing world will reach $15 trillion (in 2010 dollars), versus $10 trillion in high-income economies.

China and India will be the largest investors among developing countries, with the two countries combined representing 38 percent of the global gross investment in 2030, and they will account for almost half of all global manufacturing investment, the World Bank’s Global Development Horizons report said.

“In less than a generation, global saving and investment will be dominated by the developing world,” says the report, released on Thursday.

By 2030, half the global stock of capital, totaling $158 trillion (in 2010 dollars), will reside in the developing world compared to less than one-third today; with countries in East Asia and Latin America accounting for the largest shares of this stock, says the report, which explores patterns of investment, saving and capital flows as they are likely to evolve over the next two decades.

Titled “Capital for the Future: Saving and Investment in an Interdependent World”, the report projects developing countries’ share in global investment to triple by 2030 to three-fifths, from one-fifth in 2000.

Productivity catch-up, increasing integration into global markets, sound macroeconomic policies, and improved education and health are helping speed growth and create massive investment opportunities, which, in turn, are spurring a shift in global economic weight to developing countries.

A further boost is being provided by the youth bulge.

By 2020, less than seven years from now, growth in world’s working-age population will be exclusively determined by developing countries.

With developing countries on course to add more than 1.4 billion people to their combined population between now and 2030, the full benefit of the demographic dividend has yet to be reaped, particularly in the relatively younger regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, it said.

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |7|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | ECONOMY

Chugging on Track Two LocomoTives of AsiA

The two great locomotives of Asia must work together to propel the global train through its current travails and thereby fulfill the Deng-Rajiv dream to create an Asian century that can reinvigorate the entire world. |8| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

Ravi Bhoothalingam

A

s the world struggles to regain its momentum after the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 many emerging markets show that they have coped with it relatively better. Asia, in particular, has emerged with its growth trajectory dented but not derailed.

Again, within Asia, China and India (and several other countries) continue to show strong growth potential.

In 2011, The Economist had forecast that China would overtake the US by 2018 in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at market rates. Though India is some way behind, our growth prospects could be even better, given a

favourable demographic profile, unless we let slip the window of opportunity this affords us. Truly, China and India can be two strong locomotives hauling the train of the world economy forward in the future. But will the ride be smooth or bumpy?

On the same track?

When Rajiv Gandhi visited China in 1988, Deng Xiao Ping said to him: “An Asian Century is only possible when India and China come together.”

But in the imagery of my example, are these two locomotives on the same track and going in the same direction? After all, though both countries are economically dynamic, India is a

vibrant democracy while China is an authoritarian state. The Sino-Indian relationship is complicated with diverse strands.

Politically wary of each other, with burgeoning but skewed trade, poor people-to-people connectivity but cooperative on some global issues, they seem like a pair of twins yoked uncomfortably to each other. Thus while there is recognition of their enormous potential as growing markets, each nation remains largely invisible to the other, divided by language, information deficit, poor institutional support and the absence of a concerted strategy. So are they compatible enough for this great task? And will better business ties necessarily strengthen friendship?

Two remarkable documents throw light on the first question. The first is a speech delivered by Shiv Shankar Menon, India’s National Security Adviser, on the occasion of the Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture in August 2011, where he expressed with total clarity the essence of India’s national interest.

The second is a speech by Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo (coincidentally Menon’s former counterpart as Special Representative in the Sino-Indian boundary talks) published in the Daily Telegraph of London on September 26, 2011, where he articulated China’s national interests. What is notable is the congruence of objectives in these two documents. Simply put, the tasks of poverty eradication and of assuring

their people a life of dignity, health, education and welfare will preoccupy both countries for a long time ahead.

Opportunities and Challenges As China proceeds with her 12th Five-year Plan (2011-15), the openings that this heralds for foreigners become increasingly visible. There is a clear focus in the Plan to rebalance the economy by increasing the share of consumer expenditure. Though the overall economic growth will slow down from the hectic pace of yesteryears, yet there will be a greater variety of goods and services in demand. At the same time, the economy will experience a push towards higher value-added manufacture, as higher wages will push low-cost June 2013  India-China Chronicle |9|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | ECONOMY

items such as toys and garments into lower-wage economies such as Bangladesh, India, Vietnam or even interior China. There is a chance here for India and South Asia to opt into this manufacturing boom.

Besides, huge investments in China’s healthcare and education sectors will call for a range in both services and products—including medicines, medical equipment, scientific research, English language training materials, consulting, legal services, marketing and advertising etc. With the World Tourism Organization forecasting that China will send 100 million tourists outbound annually by 2020, even a modest 5% share for India would be a bonanza for our tourism industry and would generate huge employment as tourism is a livelihood-intensive business.

A couple of years ago, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with a firm of consultants did a detailed study (“CII-Avalon”) that revealed many niches of opportunity. It showed, for example, that in the area of automobile components, India and China are both competitive and complementary, in that it is possible to import some components and export others, both profitably. The study also revealed, quite notably, that the notorious ‘China price’ is not simply the result of government subsidies, as popularly believed in India, but the result of a whole network of factors which work together in the Chinese system to make the final export product available at an advantageous landed price to the buyer. These include: better infrastructure, lower energy costs, lower financial costs, better logistics and supply chain arrangements, higher productivity, larger scale of operations etc. The study went on to recommend what measures the state and Central governments in India could take to ensure that (at least in areas controlled by the government) the competitive playing field for Indian companies is rendered level compared to its Chinese counterparts.

Despite all these problems pushing up cost of production, sev|10| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

eral Indian companies have notched up significant successes in China. TCS, Infosys, Wipro and NIIT are all well regarded in China and held up as companies that their Chinese counterparts need to emulate. This is not just a matter of having a better product or service and pushing sales in China like in any other global market. Rather, it depends on a deep knowledge of the market and an astute business strategy. TCS, for instance, is among the few Indian companies who, early in their entry into China, decided to collaborate with the Chinese government and Chinese universities to jointly develop R&D facilities. This stood them in good stead and they have since been able to enter the Chinese banking system as systems providers. The Indian IT industry is well equipped with the creative skills and quality control to generate similar applications for Chinese business, and is seeking similar arrangements with government and

China and india Can be two strong loComotives hauling the train of the world eConomy forward in the future. but will the ride be smooth or bumpy?

State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

Similarly, in the pharmaceuticals sector, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories is the top Indian generics company in China today after a long and patient struggle for a decade, during which some other Indian players in the same sector wound up and exited. The lesson here is to focus on specialised and difficultto-manufacture products which would be of interest to the Chinese but which they did not have the capacity and/or technology to make at the same cost and quality standards. China’s pharmaceutical sector can be an attractive target for Indian firms, but only when they identify niches that suit their comparative strengths.

Investment, infrastructure, connectivity When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said two years ago that G20 countries should examine investment opportunities in rapidly-growing emerging markets, what he had in mind was marrying investible surpluses with good project opportunities. As it now turns out, huge investible surpluses lie in China and in the oil-exporting nations. Any investor will have his expectations—economic, political, or both-and we need to figure those out well in advance.

The pattern of China’s investment strategy has been to invest heavily in infrastructure and resource extraction, to provide cheap loans at highly concessional terms, and link repayments to long-term delivery contracts at pre-agreed prices.

These are attractive terms indeed but the Chinese are hard bargainers, and some countries have found that hastily-drawn agreements have worked to their disadvantage. But in India they might meet their match as they will face an equally hard-nosed and commercially astute business tradition.

Persuading Chinese companies who can compete for and win global tenders for power generation, dam-building, ship-building, roads and railways to invest in Indian projects would help address India’s enormous need to upgrade its national infrastructure. Also, it would

reduce the balance of payments deficit with China. Indian ingenuity can surely tackle the problems created by largescale import of Chinese labour—for instance by awarding long-term multiproject engagements linked to phased inputs and training of Indian skills.

Thus, given the availability of consulting and management talent in India, it may even be possible to innovate a collaborative format where Indian management and Chinese investment and technological skills can be put together to create globally competitive entities.

One of the benefits of a hugely enhanced focus on infrastructure by and within India will be to improve our connectivity with our neighbours. The poor shape of physical links between India and its South Asian neighbours is one reason (amongst many) for the poor inter-connectivity of their economies and peoples. India’s own growth potential as also those of her neighbours could be enhanced by improved South Asian linkages. The same goes for trans-Asian connections, by land, air, sea, and cyberspace. Must Chinese and Indian outreach to the nations of South Asia be cast in a mode of rivalry and competition? Can’t there be goals

must Chinese and indian outreaCh to the nations of south asia be Cast in a mode of rivalry and Competition?

Can’t there be goals that are mutually benefiCial and result in win-win outComes for all partners? to think thus requires a Creative paradigm shift but it Can definitely break new ground. that are mutually beneficial and result in win-win outcomes for all partners?

To think thus requires a creative paradigm shift but it can definitely break new ground.

Set the sights high Going back to our second question: will Sino-Indian economic partnership bring about a lasting peace? After all, did not the Beatles sing: ‘Money can’t buy you love’? There are no guarantees in life, but what is quite likely is that it

will avoid war. Still, any venture that aims to reconnect these two old civilizations in the modern age needs to paint on a larger canvas. A century ago, two great scholars of India and China—Rabindranath Tagore and Sun Yat Sen-- envisioned a new world order formed by the legacy of these two ancient civilizations. This order would be based on the harmonious coexistence of nations rather than on the zero-sum equation promised by Western realist international relations theories which have nearly brought the world to the brink of financial, nuclear and ecological disaster. The two great locomotives of Asia must work together to propel the global train through its current travails and thereby fulfill the Deng-Rajiv dream to create an Asian century that can reinvigorate the entire world. 

Ravi Bhoothalingam is a Management Consultant and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies in Delhi.

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |11|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | ECONOMY

Ila Patnaik

U

nlike in India, the slowdown in Chinese growth appears to be not merely a cyclical downturn, but lower trend growth rate that Chinese policymakers see as desirable. It forms part of China’s strategy to rebalance the domestic macro economy towards a slower growth rate of employment, lower investment and higher consumption. This is good news for global rebalancing as China’s exchange rate policy should now become more flexible, Chinese current account surpluses should come down and accumulation of Chinese fore reserves should slow down or stop.

For India, a relatively more consumption-oriented China could mean higher exports, to both China and the rest of the world, lower commodity prices and less of a pressure from exporters for exchange rate intervention.

After growth at double digits for many years, China grew at a much slower 7.7 per cent in the first quarter of the year. At a recent conference in Beijing, I heard Chinese policymakers sounding comfortable with this lower growth. Indeed, they argued lower growth in China was desirable. It almost seemed that it was planned.

The main arguments in favour of lower growth — an average of 8 per cent in the next 10 years and 7 per cent thereafter — was mainly China’s demographics. As the Chinese workingage population starts shrinking due to the replacement of the current working population by those born after the one-child policy was put in place, there is less need for high job growth. The last few decades were ones in which China was trying to meet two objectives: earn foreign exchange and create jobs. The high growth rate of job creation was necessary to absorb the large number of people joining the labour force. If the same growth rate continues, China will have labour shortages. With a slower growth of the working population and labour force, wage growth rather than employment growth will be the focus.

Second, China has undertaken significant infrastructure investment in recent decades. In coastal areas, China

|12| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

Lower growth pLanned

China brakes China’s tilt toward consumption-led growth is good news for India and the global economy.

has met its targets for infrastructure investment. It now needs to utilise better the infrastructure that it has created. Some estimates even show that China’s infrastructure investment has been excessive. The need for additional investment in infrastructure is lower, and so the investment strategy will be modified accordingly.

A shift towards domestic consumption-led growth will make the Chinese growth model less dependent on exports. In episodes of global slowdown like the recent one, the Chinese economy can then continue to grow more steadily. The decline in the Chinese trade surplus and slower exports after the crisis have

made it evident that, even if desirable, the policy of export-led growth was unlikely to be sustainable.

At the recent IMF-World Bank meetings in Washington DC, China has indicated that it will allow the renminbi to move in a wider band than it has hitherto. This effectively means that it will allow the Yuan to appreciate. This will make Chinese exports more expensive and imports into China cheaper. Such an exchange rate regime will be more suitable for a domestic consumption-led, rather than an export-led growth strategy.

An appreciation of the Yuan will also allow other emerging economies to permit their currencies to be more flexible. Today when China sustains a policy of an undervalued exchange rate through its intervention and sterilisation, other central banks often come under pressure to do the same. The context in which China has been able to financially repress the system and pay low or negative real interest rates to households is unlikely to work in more market-oriented and democratic countries. It will be a relief for other

As ChinA foCuses more on growth in serviCes, As it hAs seen reCently, As well As high-end produCts, AwAy from the low-end mAnufACturing thAt dominAted its growth model, indiAn exports stAnd A better ChAnCe EM (emerging market) central bankers not to have the kind of pressure they face thanks to China today.

One of the origins of the global crisis was diagnosed to be the cheap funding available in the US economy owing to Chinese purchase of US treasury bills. The high level of liquidity, asset price bubbles and, finally, the meltdown were said to be caused by the Chinese policy of keeping consumption low, savings high and then pushing those savings into the US,

where households consumed too much and did not save. This arrangement was facilitated by the Chinese exchange rate policy. A change in the Chinese policy is expected to lead to a global rebalancing.

For India, which has had an economy much more based on domestic consumption, where the domestic savings to GDP ratio is closer to 30 per cent, in contrast to China’s 50 per cent, a rebalancing in China is good news. Not only is a more rebalanced world a better and more sustainable business environment, with less vulnerable risks, but India could gain directly as it is often seen as a competitor to China. In areas where India can compete with Chinese products for a share of the market, its exports can benefit. In addition, if India is able to enter the market in certain products, it stands to gain. As China focuses more on growth in services, as it has seen recently, as well as highend products, away from the low-end manufacturing that dominated its growth model, Indian exports stand a better chance.

Lower investment in China is likely to lead to a softening of global commodity prices. As a large commodity importer, India stands to benefit from softer prices. Though it may be argued that global growth may slow down if China slows down, as the Chinese policymakers argue, if the growth can be higher quality growth, protecting the environment and reducing pollution, with higher wage growth, more innovation and less distortions, the world stands to gain.

Economic stability is not the only issue at stake. Political stability in China is a challenge as inequality has grown. If China does not follow a wider consumption-based growth model, the bigger challenge may be political rather than economic stability. It seems that the Chinese government has set the forces for domestic rebalancing in place, it remains to be seen how successful the policy will be.  Ila Patnaik is Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Delhi [Courtesy: The Indian Express] June 2013  India-China Chronicle |13|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | EDUCATION

gree instead of pursuing a top quality vocational education.

While this hierarchy of education exists in many other countries, it is very acute in India. This socio-cultural difference becomes even more complicated due to inadequacies at the policy level which creates islands of excellence but does not inculcate quality in the higher education system as a whole.

In contrast, China expanded its higher education by not only providing opportunities at the vocational level by engaging the masses through lowcost, volume-based manufacturing but also invested heavily in creating world class universities through initiatives like Project 985 which includes 39 universities striving for global excellence.

As a result, China beats India on

PartnershiP in higher education

Breaking the perception barrier India and China must not lose sight of the enormous potential and synergy for partnership in higher education.

Rahul Choudaha

t

he two most populous countries of the world—China and India— have a flourishing bilateral trade that has reached nearly $75 billion in 2011 and is expected to cross the $100 billion mark by 2015. however, the economic activism has not translated into higher education partnerships.

Mirroring the size of the population, China and India have the two largest higher education systems in the world with a total enrollment of 29.1 |14| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

million and 26.7 million students, respectively. however, the partnerships in the higher education sector are few and far between.

What explains this gap? In addition to the obvious factors like language and cultural barriers, perceptual barriers about quality contribute to the lack of higher education partnerships between China and India. These barriers are confounded by the different structures of higher education systems and allocation of family resources on a child’s higher education.

At the structural level, Indian higher education system is highly concentrated at the undergraduate (bachelor’s) degree level. In fact, with 19.8 million students, it is the largest system in the world in terms of undergraduate enrollment as compared to 12.7 million in China and 10.4 million in the U.S. This concentration at undergraduate level indicates a socio-cultural environment which perceives bachelor’s degree as a prestigious pathway. Thus, many in India are willing to pursue a poor quality undergraduate de-

account of both access and excellence.

In terms of access, China enrolls nearly 9.6 million students in vocational education as compared to 4 million in India. Likewise, in terms of world universities rankings and research production, Chinese universities are gaining prominence whereas Indian universities are lagging behind. Despite the success of Chinese higher education, many Indian institutions find it tough to reach out to China about partnering in vocational or research universities due to perceptual barriers.

Another factor complicating the situation is the differences of family unit.

Given the single child policy in China, financial resources in a family are concentrated on one child, unlike India where financial resources are shared

among siblings. This concentration of resources creates an expectation among the Chinese families to get the best quality of foreign education for their child, while Indian families have to be content with the best they can afford.

Both the Chinese and Indians are seeking quality foreign education, but with differential level of affordability and they find western destinations to be offering more value as compared to what they can offer each other. This translates into higher number of part-

in China, finanCial resourCes in a family are ConCentrated on one Child, unlike india where finanCial resourCes are shared among siblings. this ConCentration of resourCes Creates an expeCtation among the Chinese families to get the best quality of foreign eduCation for their Child, while indian families have to be Content with the best they Can afford. nerships from China and India with the US and the UK as compared to those among themselves.

To sum up, both Chinese and Indian higher education has its own context, priorities and limitations. however, there are significant opportunities of collaboration and growth between the two countries and a lot needs to be done to facilitate them. Proactive initiatives to break perceptual barriers which go beyond the language and cultural barriers should be one such priority at policy, institutional and individual level, so that both India and China do not lose sight of the enormous potential and synergies in higher education partnerships with each other. 

Dr. Rahul Choudaha is a New York-based international higher education specialist. He is the director of research and strategic development at World Education Services.

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |15|

INFOCUS | INTERVIEW | NAIDU

It’s time we saw each other through our own eyes, not the West On a recent trip to China, the India-China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC) team caught up with K. Nagaraj Naidu, Consul General of Guangzhou, China.

The Indian Consulate in Guangzhou has jurisdiction over seven of China’s provinces including Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hunan, Fujian, Hainan and Guangxi. In a freewheeling interview with ICEC, Mr. Naidu shared his aim to encourage Chinese business enterprises to consider India as an investment Mr. Naidu, this is your first posting as Consul General. How do you see your role in areas such as tourism, trade promotion and cultural exchanges?

Answer: Yes, this is my first posting as Consul General.

However, since I have worked in the China region (including Hong Kong) before, I can say that I am familiar with the work environment here. As far as enhancing IndiaChina relations in the tourism, trade and cultural sectors is concerned, a lot has been done by our mission in Beijing as well as our Posts in Shanghai and Guangzhou in the last few years. However, the potential for growth in these sectors is tremendous, and a lot more needs to be done.

On the economic front, our engagement with China (for that matter even that of China with India) started only in the late 90’s as compared to the Western and Southeast Asian countries. Today, China is India’s largest partner in goods trading. Though Indian companies find the operating environment in China challenging, the economic engagement between the two countries has been continuous and the trade deficit for India is on the rise. Auto ancillary, power equipment, pharmaceutical, ores, heavy machinery, transport infrastructure, IT services and training, and medical equipment, are areas that are witnessing major tractions. China has also become the largest executor of power projects in India in the last few years. |16| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

What will be your strategy in the coming months?

Our strategy in the coming months would be to encourage Chinese exporters of equipment and value-added goods to invest in manufacturing in India. This will not only help to reduce the rising trade deficit, but will also give greater confidence to the Indian consumer about the quality and service-related issues of China-made products. In the coming months we also plan to organise business outreach activities in a number of Chinese cities and continue to gather and disseminate information on business opportunities in China for Indian business houses. Both countries have also initiated the India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) in the year 2011. Two rounds of SED have taken place till date. The SED mechanism is a reflection of the maturity of the economic engagement between the two countries and is aimed at information exchange, sharing of best practices and working on joint projects across various economic sectors.

What are your plans regarding tourism?

On the tourism front, our attempt has been to encourage Chinese tourists to visit new destinations in the West, East and Southern regions. While the golden triangle (DelhiAgra-Jaipur) is still very popular, many Chinese tourists are willing to travel to new and attractive destinations in India.

The Consulate has recently partnered with the Guangzhou Television Group to telecast more programmes on Indian

tourism. We have recently worked with the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to organize a familiarization tour for a four-member visual/print media group from Guangzhou to Odisha. We will also be participating in a number of tourism expos which will be taking place in the seven Chinese provinces (Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hunan, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan) under the Consulate jurisdiction. A number of Chinese adventure tourists have also written guidebooks on India for Chinese travelers.

Mr. Wu Zhiwei, a travel writer and photographer from Guangzhou, has been awarded the Best Foreign Journalist Award in the National Tourism Awards 2011-12 organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India on March 18, 2013. Mr. Wei has written two books named India: Inside Ganges and India Again: Inside Rajasthan. Wei’s Pilgrimage in South India is also due to be published in the second-half of 2013. His books are based mostly on his interactions with Indians and his perceptions of Indian life during his numerous visits to India over the last decade.

What steps are you taking in the cultural arena?

On the cultural front, we are working closely with Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the various state governments to bring more Indian dance and music ensembles to China. We are also actively working with a number of Chinese universities where we have India Chairs

destination. His efforts include promoting Chinese exporters to invest in manufacturing in India, working with Chinese universities to have India Chairs, encouraging tie-ups in skills development as well as promoting Indian culture and heritage. Mr.Naidu also clarified that the Indian Embassy’s trade dispute advisory on its website is not intended to scare Indian companies from doing business with China, but encourage them to adopt safe trade practices. to promote discourses and lectures on India. We regularly organize essay competitions on India-related themes for young Chinese students studying at various universities to encourage them to learn more about India. Since 2013 will see India celebrating 100 years of Bollywood, the Consulate is planning to organize Indian Film Festivals in a number of cities and universities in the provinces under the jurisdiction of the Consulate.

You started your career at the Indian Embassy in Beijing as the Third Secretary in 2000 and then you have served as the Second Secretary from 2002 to 2003; as the Consul at the Indian Consulate in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2006 and again as the First Secretary and Counsellor from 2009 till 2012.

Now you are the Consul General of Guangzhou, how do you plan to integrate your experience of China in your new role?

When I joined the Foreign Service in 1998, I was very keen on working in China. However, I did not anticipate that my stay in China would be so long. However, I have no regrets. I have been fortunate to come and work in China at the right time (probably everybody says that). Living and working in China has enabled me to understand and appreciate the Chinese work culture. Since I have stayed in this country (including Hong Kong) for almost 10 years, I June 2013  India-China Chronicle |17|

INFOCUS | INTERVIEW | NAIDU

What about Indian enterprises who wish to expand? am able to communicate with the Chinese in their language.

Indian enterprises looking to expand operations within This enables me to convey my views and ideas directly to India could also look at China as a source of cheap capital. the Chinese, which could otherwise have been lost in transIndian companies planning to have a presence in China are lation. Over the years, I have made friends and contacts encouraged to approach the Consulate for business intelamong various central government ministries and departligence, advice, as well as briefing on registration procedures. ments as well as among offices and bureaus in the provincial Business chambers planning to lead business delegations to governments and public/private sector enterprises. Since, I China, Indian SEZ’s looking for investors, Indian manufachave worked mostly in the economic and commercial areas; turers desirous of finding a technology partner, and the state I have travelled extensively across the length and breadth government delegations who are desirous of visiting China of the country and have established good contacts with ofon study tours of pilot/demonstration projects etc. are all ficials in the economic bureaucracy – the Chinese Ministry encouraged to approach the Consulate. We are always ready of Commerce, the National Development and Reforms to assist them.

Commission, Development Research Centers, and the I also plan to continue to raise the Chinese business chambers both at the issue of market access for Indian pharmacentre and the provinces. I hope that I ceuticals, tobacco, fruits and vegetables, will be able to capitalise on the experibovine meat etc. with relevant Chinese ence gained over these years, as well institutions. I also plan to interact more as my extensive network of contacts with scholars and academicians at Chiand familiarity with working in China nese universities and think-tank groups in carrying out my new assignment as in order to encourage them to interact Consul General of Indian Consulate in and forge tie ups with Indian universities Guangzhou. The Indian Consulate in and think tanks. Tourism is also big on Guangzhou has jurisdiction over seven my agenda. The South of China is well of China’s most important provinces inconnected to Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru cluding Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Mumbai. The Consulate will be Hunan, Fujian, Hainan and Guangxi. I working closely with the India Tourism hope that in the coming years, with the Bureau (in Beijing) and will also parsupport and efforts of all the officials ticipate in leading tourism fairs/expos and staff of the Indian Consulate in to encourage Chinese travel agencies to Guangzhou, I will be able to give my promote travel to India. best to boost and strengthen IndiaIndIan companIes plannIng China bilateral relations. to have a presence In chIna The Indian Embassy in Beijing and are encouraged to approach the Indian Consulates in Shanghai In your tenure, do you have any and Guangzhou have posted trade plans to start any new practice the consulate for busIness dispute advisories on their webor introduce any new changes for IntellIgence, advIce, as well sites. How does your office plan greater cooperation with India? to address the issues of protecting The Indian Consulate in as brIefIng on regIstratIon Indian business interests?

Guangzhou is well known for its procedures.

The reason behind releasing the outreach activities, interaction with “Trade Advisory” and regular updates public, and efficiency of service. I plan thereafter is to help protect the interests of the small to not only continue to build on these achievements, but and medium-scale Indian traders or trading firms. The also to work on new initiatives to promote greater India“Advisory” was brought out because of the sudden surge in China business linkages and people-to-people contacts. My the instances of fraud that were brought to the attention aim will be to encourage more Chinese business enterprises of the Embassy and the Consulates during the years 2009 to consider India as an investment destination, particularly, and 2010. The “Advisory” does not intend to scare Indian in the heavy engineering sector. There is an urgent need for businesses from doing business with China, but wants to Chinese exports to translate into long-term investments. educate them on Chinese business culture and encourage Since capital is cheap in China today and the Chinese them to adopt safe trade practices that would enable them enterprises are scouting for good investment opportunities to take requisite precautions and ensure that they do not abroad, India could be a preferred destination for Chinese become victims to fraudulent practices. The “Advisory” investments. I would appeal to state governments in India is particularly aimed at those who are allured by so-called to visit China to organize investment road shows and “Chinese prices” and want to make quick money, thereby, seminars to attract Chinese investments. China has also giving scant regard to checking the credentials of the done exceptionally well in the area of skills development and Chinese company or the product quality. We have given I plan to invite Skills Development Institutions (ITIs) in wide publicity to the trade advisories by sending them to all India to have tie-ups with Chinese institutions to train more the stakeholders in India over the last two years. The media skilled manpower in India. |18| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

publicity that the “Advisories” have received has had its desired effect. Today there is a clear decline in the number of trade disputes with more and more traders sending their trade queries directly to the Embassy and the Consulates for advice rather than speaking and concluding business with some unknown person in an on-line chat forum.

clear up some of the misperceptions of the Chinese about India and to encourage the Chinese to have a constructive debate on India and the issues that the country faces. We also regularly organize economic and cultural events in universities to gauge the understanding of the young Chinese about India.

How do you plan to reach out to the Indian community in regions under your Consulate? Is your office approachable and efficient in dealing with issues/ complaints from Indians?

Among the seven provinces under the jurisdiction of the Indian Consulate, a large majority of the Indian community lives in the Guangdong province in the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The rough estimate of Indians living in the province of Guangdong is close to 25,000. We also have a large floating population of Indian businessmen; who while residing in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, keep shuttling between Hong Kong/Macau and mainland China. The Consulate provides passport, visa and Consular assistance to the Indian community in Guangzhou. For the benefit of the Indian business community in Shenzhen, we organize a Consular camp once every month in Shenzhen. As regards our office, we have an “open door” policy and any Indian having a specific query/issue can directly approach us and my office and staff are always ready to assist them. We also have an officer in the Consulate who is designated as the Community Welfare Officer. He looks into the affairs of the Indian community in South China, as well as the interests and welfare of the Indian student community pursuing higher studies in various Chinese universities in South China.

Please identify some aspects of Chinese tourism and trade from which India can take a cue?

On the tourism front, China offers a very safe environment for both the lone traveller as well as those who travel in groups. The availability of reasonably priced, safe and good-quality 3 to 4 star hotels, clean and inexpensive restaurant options, and spirited and friendly tourist guides (even if not speaking fluent English) in almost every city/town in China is another plus point that attract foreign tourists to China. An interesting aspect of China’s hospitality industry is that women constitute over 60% of the workforce. Moreover, tourism-related infrastructure is well developed and follows a standard model that has been replicated all over China. This makes it easy for a foreign traveller to travel all over in China easily. However, in China, the emphasis on “looking good” is so strong that most historical sites look as if they have been built in the last five to 10 years while the heritage sites in China look like theme parks. On the other hand, though India has preserved its historical sites well, the underinvestment in tourism infrastructure is a big negative. India needs to encourage more women to join the hospitality industry by providing incentives in the form of training. She should also improve the tourism infrastructure by encouraging the building of good quality budget hotels, and do away with touts so as to provide better security to travellers at railway/bus stations and popular tourist destinations.

How well is India known in the Consulate’s jurisdiction and how is she perceived by the Chinese?

India is well known among the Chinese in the provinces under the Consulate’s jurisdiction. As regards the Chinese perception of India, there are typically two perceptions based on the age group. The older ones (those in their midfifties and over) reminisce India’s historical ties with China, the Buddhist connection, the silk route, Xuan Tsang’s visit to India, and the era of Raj Kapoor’s movies; while the younger ones (over 25 and up to 45 years) think of India as an IT power, that has a border problem with China, is a producer of affordable pharmaceuticals, and a place where the disparity between the rich and the poor is stark, where slums abound everywhere, where things are unorganized but yet has a social stability.

What is the Consulate doing to improve these perceptions, particularly that of the younger generation?

In order to improve the understanding of the younger Chinese about developments in India, our mission in Beijing and the Consulate in Guangzhou have actively made use of the Chinese social media - Weibo. The Indian Consulate in Guangzhou has an active Chinese blog where we regularly post on all happenings in India that would be of interest to the Chinese. Our aim is to use our blog postings and help to

What message do you wish to give our readers?

My message to all the readers of this magazine is to work towards supporting the efforts being made by the governments of India and China to promote better and friendly India-China relations. India and China are ancient civilizations and developing economies. As nations with over one billion population each, they have a lot of things in common including challenges and opportunities. For a long time, the people of the two countries have seen and learnt about each other through the window and the writings of the western world. It is time that we begin to learn about our shared heritage through the joint efforts of the scholars and writers of the two countries. A significant initiative in this regard has already been started with both countries agreeing to produce a joint cultural encyclopedia. Besides, both sides also need to be sensitive to each other’s mutual concerns. As developing economies, our convergences on major global issues are being increasingly manifest. Today, the larger region and indeed the world have high expectations from our growing cooperation. The development of India and China can thus be a truly reinforcing process. I look forward to working with all the stakeholders towards promoting India-China relations.  June 2013  India-China Chronicle |19|

INFOCUS | INDIA | HEALTHCARE

HEALTHCARE IN INDIA

Not in Good Health

Amir Ullah Khan and Saleema Razvi

I

n India, the debate on trade has been and continues to be a debate on globalisation. Free trade results in the globalisation of production and consumption. It also allows countries to leverage their comparative advantages and produce goods and services that they are relatively more efficient in producing. Countries can thus specialise and therefore world production on the whole improves.

Globalisation has indeed helped developing and poor countries to leverage their abundant resources to produce goods and services that allow for foreign exchange earnings which can be used for essential imports.

Besides, free trade has improved the chances of the really poor countries to conduct business internationally, allowing their firms to widen their portfolios and enter the large markets.

It is in this context that domestic policies on trade assume significance and the political mindset that prevails over issues such as import restrictions, export regulations, tariffs and duties needs to change.

In the recent past, especially in the last 10 years or so, there has been

a surge of dollars into the Indian economy by way of export earnings, foreign direct investments, portfolio investments and Non Resident Indian (NRI) repatriation. This has fuelled an unprecedented supply of dollars leading to the steady fall in the value of the dollar. A large number of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are now putting their money into India’s capital markets. NRIs had already made India the largest recipient of nonresident repatriation by sending more than 70 billion dollars. It is thus not

In 2004, natIonal healthcare spendIng equaled about 5.2 per cent of the nomInal gdp, or about us$ 34.9 bIllIon. healthcare spendIng In IndIa Is expected to rIse by 12 per cent per annum through 2013-18 (In rupee terms) and scale up to about 6.5 per cent of gdp, amountIng to us$ 90 bIllIon.

surprising that the federal government through its annual Economic Survey has advocated the liberalizing of foreign direct investment (FDI) for services such as health insurance, rural banking and higher education and the government admits that relaxation in FDI policy to this effect would create a more conducive environment for trade in services.

Healthcare has emerged as one of the largest service sectors in India. In 2004, national healthcare spending equaled about 5.2 per cent of the nominal GDP, or about US$ 34.9 billion.

Healthcare spending in India is expected to rise by 12 per cent per annum through 2013-18 (in rupee terms) and scale up to about 6.5 per cent of GDP, amounting to US$ 90 billion. Other estimates suggest that by 2015, healthcare spending could contribute to 8 per cent of GDP and employ around 11 million people. From a pan-India perspective, presently there are more than half a million doctors employed in 15,097 hospitals. Additionally there are 0.75 million nurses, who look after more than 870,000 hospital beds. During the previous decade, the number of doctors increased by 36.6 per cent of which an estimated 30 per cent of

Healthcare has emerged as one of the largest service sectors in India. India is committed to injecting huge public funds into health care but services are far from adequate. There is thus a large scope for the sector to attract foreign investment, technology and resources.

|20| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |21|

INFOCUS | INDIA | HEALTHCARE

medical practitioners hold specialist qualifications.

According to government estimates, 30000 doctors pass out every year from the 266 medical colleges in India, including private ones. There are nearly 700,000 doctors registered in India. A majority of them work in urban areas, a few migrate and only around 22000 devote themselves to the rural population. It is not surprising therefore that rural health care is in a shambles. It is estimated that more than 80 per cent of India’s population accesses private health care though it is often very expensive and of dubious

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | MARKET

and every household spends up to 10% of annual household consumption on an average in meeting health care needs.

Two and a half million Indians suffer from HIV/AIDS. What is worse is that annually 22 lakh infants and children die from preventable illnesses; one lakh mothers die during child birth, five lakh people die of tuberculosis while diarrhoea and malaria continue to take lives across the country.

The healthcare industry in India, which comprises hospital and allied sectors, has registered a growth of 9.3 percent between 2000-2012, comparable to the sectoral growth rate

to grow by 12 percent annually for the next five years to reach the six billion dollar mark in 2015.

There is thus a large scope for the Indian healthcare sector to attract foreign investment, technology and resources. The growing number of students attending medical school in China is indicative of the demand that exists in the country. Research in medical devices and surgical equipment is already an important area where investment has gone up considerably.

The bio technology, pharmaceuticals and drug sectors have also witnessed tremendous growth in various clusters

EmErging markEts quality. The situation is particularly tragic because the single biggest contributor to chronic poverty in India is expenditure on health care, and various estimates have shown that more than a quarter of those who remain below poverty line for more than five years are there because of the costs of healthcare. Thus the single biggest factor contributing to chronic poverty in India is expenditure on health care.

To put it simply, the health care system in India is more or less absent and a bulk of the population has no access to quality health facilities. The state machinery is absent in most parts and health care needs are met by the private sector which often comprises resources of dubious quality. The story is stark and the data gruesome. At least between 2/3rds to 3/4ths of all medical expenditure is spent on privately provided care |22| India-China Chronicle  May 2013

of other emerging economies such as China, Brazil, and Mexico. Growth in the sector is driven by healthcare facilities, private and public sectors, medical diagnostics and pathological laboratories, and the medical insurance sector. The Indian medical equipment and devices market was estimated at 3.5b dollars in 2009 with a consistent growth of 15 percent per annum.

Market for medical supplies and disposables is dominated by the domestic manufacturers, whereas imported brands dominate the premium and high-end medical equipment market.

The Indian medical equipment and devices market is on the growth radar of several multinational companies, and imports are expected to increase.

Driven by increasing awareness and affordability coupled with an increasing patient pool, the market is expected

across the country. Given that the federal government has declared that the twelfth plan period (2012-17) is going to be focused on health, the excitement around the healthcare segment is indeed not surprising. With the cabinet also talking about relaxing FDI rules and the restriction on foreign ownership we should see a large number of players coming in to India in the area of healthcare and research. 

Amir Ullah Khan is President of the Global University at Saharanpur in UP and Professor of Economics Saleema Razvi is a Research scholar Health Economics and trade issues at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi

Entry Rules

In today’s global scenario, there is a need to understand how to play the game.

Marcos Fava Neves

E

merging and developed economies differ in speed of growth and development as well as characteristics and entry norms. Emerging markets offer a chance for companies to set up businesses, whereas developed economies merge, acquire or conquer market shares of competitors.

The economies can be compared on different parameters. (See: On 16

Parameters). Emerging markets have distinct characteristics and they work as entry points for companies willing to explore the emerging markets.

“On 16 Parameters” is an indicator of how the food market of the fast emerging companies behaves and how they lend “go-to-market strategies” opportunities.

An analysis of this table shows that developed markets are more mature and stable with predictable

characteristics and well-established aspects such as, logistics, retail and institutional environment.

This maturity is reflected in the population that tends to search for differentiated products and services, especially niche offerings such as healthy products and better institutional environment.

Following is the crux based on the indicators as mentioned in the index.

1. Emerging markets can´t be generalised. A deep understanding of each June 2013  India-China Chronicle |23|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | MARKET

Developed Countries

Parameter of analysis

Emerging Countries

Stable

gDP

Growing

Relatively stable

Population

Growing

Relatively stable

Urbanisation of population

Urbanisation growing fast and emerging of mega-cities

Mature or declining

Food markets

Sales are booming

Small effect on consumption

income growth and income distribution

Huge impact on consumption (still a high percentage of income spent on food)

Well educated

Consumer profile

Being educated

More homogenous group

Country’s characteristics

Different segments of emerging economies, difficult to aggregate

High quality and sophisticated markets

Quality (food safety) in markets

High level of informal markets and food safety under construction

High percentage of consumption (expenditure) in food service

Food service share in food consumption

Smaller participation of expenditure in food service

Quite stable

retail systems

Undergoing huge transformation

Limited possibility

Expansion of commodity production

High possibility

High sensitivity of population and severe laws, recycling and consciousness

Environment and preservation issues

Low sensitivity of population and regulation being built

Growing faster

adoption of bio-fuels

Low

Healthy, veggies, fruits, organics, among others

Consumption

Quantity (protein)

Developed and mature

Logistics and transport systems

Early stage of development, immature

Consolidated, respected and well known

institutional environment

Being built, with high transaction costs

Figure: On 16 Parameters market is necessary. Countries differ amongst and within themselves.

China, Brazil and India are real “continents” and differ depending on each specific region, urban or rural areas, and cultural background. Imagine generalising Africa, what a huge mistake that would be!

2. As opposed to developed markets, getting information in emerging economies is quite difficult due to a lack of reliable data, official statistics and other sources. So, to have access to information, one has to develop own local sources. This is a unique characteristic.

3. Barter system may be the strategy |24| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

adopted for finance purposes as trading in monetary terms is risky because in an emerging economy most people lack income and face inflation, thus making the recouping of money a challenge.

These issues change business models.

4. Marketing channels in emerging economies involve a large amount of distributors and can sometimes be very chaotic. The modern retail systems are diverse and dual and several variations are found within each country. A segmentation process should be done using this variable and a clear multichannel approach (in product and services) should be established by the companies.

5. An entrant has to adapt to deal with family business and family managed distribution systems.

They tend to respond differently to a company offer and ask for more services and financial benefits than for discounts, which is a basic demand of large multinational retailers.

6. Companies willing to enter should have a motivated sales force equipped with modern technology that allows for data generation and analysis. It would help them to acquire information about the market and target the different market segments.

7. Companies should try to select well and build trust with distributors

in order to determine entry barriers for latecomers in these markets.

8. Emerging economies have a fast rate of economic growth, which leads to surfeit of job opportunities.

In such a scenario, employees change companies quite fast. So, companies willing to enter should have a strategy to attract and retain talents.

9. Competition is different. New local players may come in to these markets in form of competitors. They come faster in emerging markets as opposed in mature markets. Since the local players are more adapted to local situations and know the rules of the game, the new entrant will find them a stiff competition and should be well-prepared.

10. Acquisition of local companies may be a strategy to get people and market knowledge, but one needs to be sensitive to cultural aspects, or else this move can backfire.

11. Economies can have institutional restrictions such as entry norms via joint venture or local partners only.

So, it is recommended that entrants should use local experts to understand the regulatory system.

12. Adapting product lines to local logistic systems is also needed.

developed markets are more mature and stable with predictable characteristics and well-established aspects such as, logistics, retail and institutional environment. this maturity is reflected in the population that tends to search for differentiated products and services At times, entrants can be faced with issues such as emerging markets not having a cooling equipment-system in transportation.

13. Finding the right media to communicate with potential consumers is also required so that efficacy of message is not lost and reaches potential customers. Local sources of media may be used, as they can be more effective.

14. Focusing on the growing segment of food service in emerging cities may be a nice strategy to enter.

Once consumers are familiarized with

the products, the retail strategy for expansion can be adopted.

15. The new companies should abstain from reaching out to the existing markets since the complexity is huge and the company may get lost.

Focusing on target segments is a key to success.

16. Manuals containing necessary procedures should be made and used as an important source for faster training.

17. Investing in emerging economies may require other types of investments which are not previously planned, such as infrastructure, local community benefits, corporate social responsibility programs etc.

In order to grow in today’s global scenario, there is a need to understand how to play the game. The difficulties are no doubt immense, but the opportunities are plentiful too. 

Marcos Fava Neves is a professor at the School of Business, University of São Paulo, Brazil. ( favaneves@gmail.com)

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |25|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | PILGRIMAGE

Go chugging on Buddha’s footsteps Today, Buddhism is associated more with countries such as Japan, China and Tibet, but the thrill of following the Buddhist trail through the land of its origin, remains an unforgettable experience.

T

he Mahaparinirvan Express is a special tourist train that takes passengers on a spiritual tour through Buddhist India, where Buddhism originated more than 2,500 years ago.

The train gets its name from the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which contains the Buddha’s final explanation of his teachings.

It’s sacred journey includes visits to the most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites of Lumbini (where the Buddha was born), Bodhgaya (where he became enlightened), Varanasi (where he first preached), and Kusinagar (where he passed away and achieved nirvana).

Mahaparinirvan Express Features

The Mahaparinirvan Express is operated by Indian Railways using carriages from a Rajdhani Express train. This is a fully air conditioned train offering three different classes of travel (first class, two tier, and three tier). It’s far from opulent, unlike India’s luxury tourist trains, but then again pilgrimages aren’t normally associated with luxury! Passengers are greeted

|26| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

with garlands, provided with luggage assistance, and given a welcome gift of a Buddhist guidebook. Security guards are present on the train, and tours are fully guided.

Mahaparinirvan Express Route and Itinerary

The train departs from Delhi usually one to two times per month, depending on the season. It has the following itinerary: • Day One - Delhi (afternoon departure from Safdarjang Railway Station) • Day Two - Gaya (visit Bodhgaya temples) • Day Three - Rajgir and Nalanda • Day Four - Varanasi (visit Sarnath, and the holy Ganges river for the evening aarti). The tallest statue of Lord Buddha in India is in Sarnath.

• Day Five - Gorakhpur (visit Khusinagar) • Day Six - Gorakhpur (day trip to Lumbini in Nepal) • Day Seven - Gonda (visit Sravasti) June 2013  India-China Chronicle |27|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | PILGRIMAGE

• Day Eight - Agra (visit the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri) and return to Delhi by 6 pm.

Mahaparinirvan Express Journey Duration

The total journey runs for seven nights/eight days.

However, it’s possible to travel only on selected parts of the route as long as your reservation is for a minimum three nights.

Mahaparinirvan Express Cost and Classes of Travel

The fare in a first class air conditioned compartment (1AC) is $160 per person, per night. Two tiered air conditioned class (2AC) costs $130 per person, per night. Three tiered air conditioned class (3AC) costs $110 per person, per night. If you’re unsure about what the different classes of travel mean, this guide to accommodations provides an explanation.

The cost includes the train journey, food, road transfers by air conditioned vehicle, sightseeing, Darshan to visit holy places, hotel stay in air conditioned rooms, and entrance fees.

Mahaparinirvan Express Reservations

You can make a reservation for travel on the Mahaparinirvan Express by visiting the Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corporation’s Rail Tourism website or at Indian Railways booking offices.

More information is available on the website, or from Indian Railways by emailing tourticket@irctc.co.in or phoning (91-11) 2370-1100/2370-1174.

Mahaparinirvan Express Information

As the journey includes a day trip to Nepal, those who aren’t Indian nationals will need a Nepali visa. This can easily be obtained at the border. Two passport sized photographs are required. Foreign tourists with Indian visas must make sure that these are double or multiple entry visas, so that return to India will be allowed.

Mahaparinirvan Express Odisha Special

If you’re interested in visiting additional places associated with the Buddha, Indian Railways has added a new service, the Mahaparinirvan Express Odisha Special. This tour includes pilgrimage sites in Orissa (Odisha), as well as important sites in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Suggested Reading • • •

|28| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

Top 5 Spiritual Destinations in India Celebrating Buddha’s Birthday in India 10 Must See Buddhist Monasteries in India  June 2013  India-China Chronicle |29|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | POLICY

Panchsheel Power Together, leaders of India and China can construct a Panchsheel for a new time.

Sanjaya Baru

T

here is something about the number five in India-China relations.

As free powers, the two Asian giants defined their relationship in terms of the famous Panchsheel — mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; mutual nonaggression; mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and, peaceful co-existence. China’s new leaders have enunciated a Panchsheel for our times.

China’s President Xi Jinping listed a “five point proposal” for guiding India-China relations. These are:

|30| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

maintain strategic communication and keep bilateral relations on the right track; harness each other’s comparative strength and expand win-win cooperation in infrastructure, mutual investment and other areas; strengthen cultural ties and increase mutual understanding and friendship between our peoples; expand coordination and collaboration in multilateral affairs to jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and tackle global challenges; accommodate each other’s core concerns and properly handle problems and differences existing between the two countries.

India would be happy to be on board with each of these five points.

The fifth point is the only tricky one.

It leaves undefined what China’s “core concerns” are. Traditionally, Tibet and Taiwan were China’s “core interests”, but more recently, Chinese spokespersons have referred to their claims on the South China Sea as a “core interest”. This has already opened a Pandora’s Box for China, setting the cat among the Southeast Asian pigeons and facilitating America’s rediscovery of Asia. India, like many other countries that have economic interests in the Pacific, would like freedom of navigation through these seas.

India would, understandably, want to know what exactly China has in mind when it talks of core interests today. For its part, China too must be mindful of India’s “core interests”, especially because it has grievously hurt at least one Indian core interest by enabling the nuclear weaponisation of Pakistan.

Clearly, the last of the five points raised by Xi requires further elaboration and consideration. Indian anxieties on this score have been enhanced by China’s investment in strategic assets like the Gwadar Port in Pakistan. While China cannot be blamed, perhaps not even implicated, in the rising trend of India’s South Asian neighbours trying to play the so-called “China card”, India cannot remain oblivious to this trend. It would, at some point, impact on India’s core interests.

Having entered that caveat, India should welcome these five principles for they take cognisance of the new and growing economic relationship between the two and their cooperation at the global level. Over the past nine years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has enunciated his own five principles about India-China relations, though he has never packaged them together into one general statement, as Xi has done. What are the PM’s five principles in dealing with China?

The first principle he enunciated on India-China relations related to the border issue and was stated by him at his very first meeting with his counterpart, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, in Vientiane in November 2004. Singh told Wen that India was willing to show accommodation on the border question, “but an accommodation that must take into account ground realities.”

Singh’s second principle, which is often reported in the media as Wen’s observation but was in fact originally coined by Singh and subsequently repeated on several occasions by Wen, says that “the world has enough space for the growth ambitions of both countries”. This at once places in perspective a question that is often asked: Is the rise of China followed by India, two-fifths of humanity, a zero-sum

game that has conflict written into it?

Having said this, Singh enunciated his third principle, that the rise of China and India is a global public good. Addressing the China Academy of Social Sciences in January 2008, he saw the possibility of the rise of China and India having positive externalities for the world as a whole because of the new opportunities for development they could bring to the international community, especially other developing countries.

The fourth principle Singh has repeatedly enunciated is that, because of all the above and, equally, despite the above, the relationship between

While China Cannot be blamed, perhaps not even impliCated, in the rising trend of india’s south asian neighbours trying to play the so-Called “China Card”, india Cannot remain oblivious to this trend. it Would, at some point, impaCt on india’s Core interests. the two would be characterised both by elements of cooperation and competition. In other words, even while there would be space in the world for both countries to rise, and even as that may have beneficial consequences for the world, these processes would both offer opportunities for cooperation, as on climate change and energy security, and generate the potential for competition, for markets, resources and influence.

The fifth principle articulated by Singh is a more general principle of national security, that one country’s policy towards another is defined not just by intentions but also capabilities.

Intentions can change; capabilities are more enduring. Thus, it is not what one country’s political leadership says that ought to guide another’s policy but what one is capable of doing. Even

as India accepts China’s reassurances, it cannot afford to remain indifferent to China’s rising capability to create problems for India.

On the question of intention Vs capability, former US President Ronald Reagan had the last word. When asked if he could trust his Soviet counterparts when they promised to reduce their nuclear and missile capability, Reagan famously said, “trust, but verify”. That was precisely Singh’s reply when he was asked if he could trust Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf, and that should be any Indian leader’s response to reassurances offered by China’s leaders.

There is, today, another concern that ought to engage both leaders. That is, how would developments in the global economy, especially the TransAtlantic economic slowdown and the rise of religious and other extremist politics in Asia, impact on their own rise and of Asia as a whole?

Would conflict in Asia, in the South China Seas or in West Asia, serve anyone’s interests at all? Can China and India afford to remain reticent observers while the Asia around them burns and remains mired in sectarianism, terrorism, violence and instability? Don’t they confront, along with many other Asian economies, a shared energy security challenge?

Does it serve China’s purpose to unnerve the countries of Southeast Asia, playing one ASEAN member off against another? Is a Sino-Japan conflict in the interests of the rest of Asia? Should they not work together to build new regional architectures for sustained economic growth and regional security? Don’t Asia’s two giants have the responsibility to work with other Asian powers, including the ASEAN, Japan, Russia and the US to ensure peace, prosperity and stability in Asia? Many principles of cooperative engagement can be crafted from these challenges.  Sanjaya Baru is Director for Geo-economics and Strategy, International Institute for Strategic Studies and Honourable Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research [Courtesy: The Indian Express] June 2013  India-China Chronicle |31|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | HISTORICAL TIES | COVER

Time To build a fuTure To our pasT

Hark! The Golden era

|32| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

Born in the same cradle the two ancient civilisations have followed separate courses, which is natural. But it is time to draw upon the common past to build a lasting future.

T

oday, China is India’s largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between China and India from a modest 3 billion dollars at the beginning of the 21st century soared to about 80 billion dollars in 2012, a phenomenal increase.

Leaders of both countries have confidently proposed the goal of increasing bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015. If that does happen, what does the future hold?

Whenever issues pertaining to Sino-Indian relations, especially issues beyond trade, are discussed, a natural corollary is to focus the attention entirely on the boundary question.

People on both sides of the border seemed to have forgotten their heritage. The best way to explain this phenomenon beyond trade is through the current US influence on the population of India and China which is deeprooted not because of military power or trading prowess but because of KFCs, McDonalds and Hollywood. These soft issues bring people closer than any trade or military power.

More Indians know of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li than Dong Feng (Chinese ICBM) or Sinopec (top Chinese company in Fortune 500 list). Likewise, more Chinese know about Amitabh Bachchan and Mithun Chakravarty than Agni or Reliance. Such influence is always deep seated and which brings people closer. Hu Shih, a renowned Chinese philosopher once said, “India conquered and dominated China culturally for two thousand years without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.” More recently, this view was reaffirmed by the Chinese Consul in Kolkata, “India was China’s teacher. Chinese people will never forget that.” Likewise, Indians should also not forget that Chinese gave us vital technologies like paper and printing ink, silk, porcelain, etc. Thus, it is important do some soul searching to understand Sino-Indian relations.

We have a history of peaceful co-existence for almost 4000 years, except for once in 1962.

For once, if we ignore 1962 as an aberration, then there has not been any recorded instance of armed conflict in our entire history. If we look to the past, we find these two great neighbouring

PD Kaushik

Adviser - Legal Affairs, ICEC

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |33|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | HISTORICAL TIES | COVER

IndIa conquered and domInated chIna culturally for two thousand years wIthout ever havIng to send a sIngle soldIer across her border

civilisations in Asia, divided by a natural barrier, experienced their golden ages when their people-to-people contact was at its peak.

Development of ancient philosophical thinking in both China and India thrived during the 6th century BC. Confucius founded Confucianism in China and Gautam Buddha established Buddhism in India almost simultaneously. It is again a historical coincidence that around the 3rd century BC, after years of wars, the first united dynasty was established in China by Shihuangdi, first emperor of China, and in the sub-continent, by Chandragupta Maurya.

Ancient Cultural Relations

Sino-Indian cultural relations are often associated with the spread of Buddhism in China, but this is far from true. There are numerous references to China in Sanskrit texts and even the Mahabharata refers to China several times, including a reference to presents brought by the Chinese at the Rajsuya Yagya of the Pandavas. References of China are also found in Manusmriti and Kautilya’s Arthashastra.

Chinese literature of the third century is also full of geographic and mythological elements derived from India. A renowned historian, Arthur Waley, contemplated in his book that the holy mountain man (Sheng-Hsien) described by Lieh Tzu is an Indian sage in mystical trance. In fact, Chinese scholar’s description of life in India is the only authentic treasured source available outside the western hemisphere.

In fact, traders, missionaries and scholars from both sides became the bridge between the two civilisations. The contemporary astronomical expertise of the Chinese, as evident from their records of eclipses and the Chinese philosophy of their statecraft, all point to a Vedic origin. Therefore, it is obvious that Chinese travellers frequently visited India to renew their educational and spiritual links.

Buddhism strengthened relations between the two civilisations. Kenneth Ch’en in his book Buddhism in China stated that the development of neo-Confucianism was stimulated by a number of Buddhist ideas. Certain features of Taoism, such as its canon and pantheon, were

also taken from Buddhism. Work and phrases in the Chinese language owe their origin to terms introduced by Buddhism, while in astronomical, calendric, and medical studies, Chinese society benefited from information introduced by visiting Buddhist monks from India. Introduction of Buddhism is one of the most important events in Chinese history. It has played a major role in building the great Chinese civilisation. Chinese philosophy blossomed afresh after the impact of Buddhism.

The advent of Buddhism meant a new way of life for many Chinese, and a means of reassessing their traditional beliefs for all of them. The doctrine of karma brought spiritual consolation to innumerable people and this concept is well entrenched in all types of Chinese literature, from poetry to popular tales.

It is quite evident that India never imposed it’s ideas or culture by military force, not even on the small countries in the neighbourhood.

In case of China, it would have been virtually impossible to do so since China had been the more powerful of the two even at that time. So, the expansion of Indian culture into China is an example of human understanding and cultural cooperation – the outcome of a voluntary quest for learning. Even when Buddhism had ceased to be a vital force in the homeland and long after it had lost its place as the dominant religion in India, it continued to Indianise Chinese life. |34| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

Undoubtedly, there is little dispute that trade was the main motivation for early contact between these two civilisations. Kalidasa in his works had mentioned chinamsuka (Chinese silk) as one the most fashionable and popular textiles among the richer sections of society.

Likewise, Chinese silk also finds mention during the Harshvardhana reign. But along with goods, there was also the flow of ideas. Though the West has often contended that merchants were not likely to have interest in philosophy or were not capable of exchanging ideas, this analogy cannot be true for Indian and Chinese merchants.

It is evident from the published works that Indian and Chinese merchants were capable of discussing metaphysical questions. Lu Puwei, the compiler of philosophical encyclopaedia Lu Shih Ch’un Chiu, was a merchant. In fact, trade routes opened the gateway for Hindu culture to pass to China. Indian arts and sciences were also carried to China along with Buddhism. Images, rock cut caves and the Chinese fresco paintings too exhibited a distinct Indian influence on Chinese art.

Education

Educational ties between India and China is as ancient as the civilisations. The University of Nalanda was built in the 4th Century BC. The renowned Chinese scholar and traveller Hiuen Tsang (600-654 AD) stayed in Nalanda June 2013  India-China Chronicle |35|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | HISTORICAL TIES | COVER

Nalanda University

the renowned chInese scholar and traveller hIuen tsang (600-654 ad) stayed In nalanda unIversIty and left an elaborate descrIptIon of the excellence and purIty of monastIc lIfe practIced In the unIversIty.

University and left an elaborate description of the excellence and purity of monastic life practiced in the university. Likewise, I Tsing (634-712) mastered medicine at Nalanda. Indian mathematics and logic were cultivated by intellectuals from China and Sanskrit treatises on painting and art criticism like Sadamga (six limbs of paintings), Vatsayan’s Kamasutra (erotic art), Chitralaksana (marks of paintings), etc., formed the Hiuen Tsang foundation of Chinese art during Tang and Sung dynasties (600-1250). The golden age of Chinese culture during the mighty Tangs and brilliant Sungs was the direct outcome of the educational alliance that developed between India and China across centuries.

Sanskrit played an important role in the development of Chinese language. Phrases and words coined by Buddhist scholars enriched the Chinese vocabulary by more than 35,000 words. Even today, words of Buddhists origin are widely used in China ranging from the folklore of peasants to the formal language of the educated class without even realising their foreign origin. The word used in the old Sanskrit for Chinese emperor is “deva-putra”, which is an exact translation of “Son of Heaven” in Chinese.

Likewise, chana in Chinese means kshana in Sanskrit (instant), t’a finds its roots in stupa for pagoda, mo li from mallika for jasmine, etc.

|36| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

Jawaharlal Nehru in his work, the Discovery of India, commented that Sanskrit scholarship must have been fairly widespread in China. It is interesting to note that some Chinese scholars tried to introduce Sanskrit phonetics into the Chinese language. A well-known example of this is that of monk Shon Wen, who had lived at the time of the Tang dynasty and had tried to develop an alphabetical system along these lines in Chinese.

Thus, educational ties between the two civilisations brought people closer and became the bridge to span the gaps and for better understanding. This not only positively influenced development of art and culture on both sides but also became a reason for the flourishing trade and commerce.

language when pronounced in the Sanskrit polyphonic manner was likely to sound hurried and abrupt, and to chant Sanskrit verses in Chinese prolonged the verse so much that the rhymes were lost. Hence, to make the Chinese sutras pleasant to hear, the Chinese language had to be modified to accommodate Sanskrit sounds. Consequently, in 489, Yung Ming, Prince of Ching Ling, convened a conference of Buddhist monks at his capital to differentiate between, and define the tones of, the Chinese language for reading Buddhist sutras and for changing the verses. This led to the emergence of a new theory called the Theory of Four Tones.

The Chinese sense of realism was so intense that there was hardly any mythology in ancient China, and they have few fairy tales of their own; most of their fairy tales were originally brought to China by Indian monks in the first millennium. Buddhists used them to make their sermons more agreeable and lucid. The tales eventually spread throughout the country, assuming a Chinese appearance conformable to their new environment. For example, the stories of Chinese plays such as, A Play of Thunder-Peak, A Dream of Butterfly, and A Record of Southern Trees were all of Buddhist origin.

Indian art also reached China.

Monks and traders brought statues of Buddha, models of Hindu temples, and other objects of art to China. Fa-Hien made drawings of images on Tamralipi. Hsuan-Tsang returned with several golden and sandalwood figures of Buddha and Hui-Lun with a model of the Nalanda Mahavihara. Wang Huan-ts’e, who came to India several times, collected many drawings of Buddhist images, including a copy of the Buddha image at Bodhgaya. This was deposited at the Imperial Palace and served as a model of the image at Ko-ngai-see temple. The most famous icon of East Asian Buddhism known as the “Udayana” image was also reported to have been brought by the first Indian missionaries in 67 BC. However, this influx of Indian art was incidental and intermittent, and destined to be absorbed by Chinese art. One of the most famous caves in China – Ch’ien-fo-tung, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, – was painted with murals and furnished with numerous Buddha statues and sculptured scenes from the Jatakas.

Science & Astronomy

A major Buddhist influence on Chinese science was reflected in the scientific thought itself.

Buddhist concepts, such as the infinity of space and time, and the plurality

chInese scholars and Intellectuals have been vIsItIng and revIsItIng tagore’s lIfe, works and phIlosophy. a chInese productIon of gurudev’s famous play chItrangada, opened to packed houses at lanzhou unIversIty In 2012. a full chInese transcrIpt of rabIndra sangeet was released at the central conservatory of musIc for the fIrst tIme the same year.

Literature & Fine Arts

The literary activity of Buddhist scholars had a permanent influence on Chinese literature.

In a recent study Chinese scholar Lai Ming mentioned that a significant feature in the development of Chinese literature has been the “the immense influence of Buddhist literature on the development of every sphere of Chinese literature since the Eastern Chin period (317 AD).” The Buddhist sutras were written in combined prose and rhymed verse, a literary form unknown in China at the time. Chinese June 2013  India-China Chronicle |37|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | HISTORICAL TIES | COVER

kfcs, mcdonalds and hollywood. these soft Issues brIng people closer than any trade or mIlItary power

of worlds and time-cycles or Hindu Kalpas (Chieh) had a stimulating effect on Chinese inquiry, broadening the Chinese outlook and equipping it to investigate scientific problems. For example, the Hindu doctrine of pralayas, or recurrent world catastrophes in which sea and land were turned upside down before another world was recreated to go through the four cycles, namely differentiation (ch’eng), stagnation (chu), destruction (juai), and emptiness (kung) – were later adopted

by NeoConfucianists and was responsible for the Chinese recognition of the true nature of fossils long before they were understood in Europe. Again, the Indian doctrine of Karma (tso-yeh), or metempsychosis, influenced Chinese scientific thought on the process of biological change involving both phylogeny and ontogeny. Buddhist iconography thus contains a biological element.

Buddhism introduced a highly developed theory of logic, both formal and dialectical, as well as epistemology. Tantric Buddhism reached China in the eighth century and the greatest Chinese astronomer and mathematician of his time, I-hsing (682-727), was a Tantric Buddhist monk. The work of Indian mathematicians was also taken eastward by Indian Buddhist monks and professional mathematicians.

Evidence reveals that works on Indian astronomy were in circulation in China well

|38| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

before the T’ang period. Numerous Chinese translations of Indian mathematical and astronomical works such as Po-lo-men Suan fa (Arithmetical rules) and Po-lo-men Suan King are mentioned in the annals of the Sui dynasty.

There is definite evidence of Indian influence on Chinese astronomy and calendar studies during the T’ang dynasty. During this period, Indian astronomers were working at the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy which was assigned to prepare accurate calendars. Yang Ching-fang, a pupil of Amoghavajra (Pu-k’ung), wrote in 764 that those who wished to know the positions of the five planets and predict what Hsiu (heavenly mansion) a planet would be traversing should adopt the Indian calendric methods. Five years before that, Amoghavajra had also translated an Indian astrological work, the Hsiu Yao Ching (Hsiu and Planet Sutra), into Chinese.

During those times, there were three astronomical schools at Chang-an: Gautama (Chhuthan), Kasyapa (Chiayeh), and Kumara (Chumolo). In 684 one of the members of the Gautama school, Lo presented Empress Wu with a calendar, Kuang-tse-li, which was in use for three years. Later, in 718, another member of the school, Hsi-ta (Siddhartha), presented the Emperor a calendar, Chiu-cheli, which was almost a direct translation of an Indian calendar, Navagraha Siddhanta of Varahamihira, and which is still preserved among the T’ang period collection. It was in use for four years. In 729 Siddhartha compiled a treatise based on this calendar which went on to become the greatest known collection of ancient Chinese astronomical writings.

This was the first time that a zero symbol had appeared in a Chinese text, but, even more importantly this work also contained a table of sines, which were typically Indian. I-hsing (682727) was associated with the Kumara School and was very influenced by Indian astronomy. Indian influence is also evident in the nine planets he introduced into his calendar, Ta-yen-li. The nine planets included the sun, moon, five known planets, and two new planets, Rahu and Ketu, through which the Indian astronomers represented the ascending and descending nodes of the moon.

Similarly, Chinese traditional medicine was also influenced by Indian Ayurveda.

Alternatively, Chinese alternative form of medicine famously known as acupuncture also influenced Indian combative research studies.

In fact, there are a lot of published works which highlight peaceful coexistence of the two ancient civilisations of the world who flourished because of mutual cooperation and experienced

their golden ages almost at the same time when goods and ideas were exchanged freely between the people on both sides of the Himalayas.

Glimpses into Modern SinoCultural Relations

The end of the golden period in both countries ended the centuries old ties because both civilisations suffered alien invasions and political instability and later experienced a long colonial regime. China suffered more because on one side the West was occupying their land and on the other it suffered Japanese oppression.

The rich ancient cultural heritage on both sides became a thing of the past and was reduced to ruins.

Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis, whose mortal remains rest in the North China Martyrs’ Memorial Cemetery in Hebei Province, sacrificed his life in the service of the Chinese people during the Sino-Japanese war. As a part of the 1938 medical team of five Indian doctors, he stayed on in China working in mobile clinics to treat wounded soldiers. He is one of the Indians who is most revered by the Chinese at

large. His naming of his only son as Yin-Hua (meaning India-China) shows the extent of his love for India and China. His death on the battle lines, transformed a mortal Indian into a Chinese legend. In his condolence meeting those in attendance sang – From across the Indian Ocean You came to North China, defying the bitter cold For the world of tomorrow, And spent four autumns here, fighting a bitter fight.

And then at the end of the long dark night The stream of your life ceased to flow; Oh, beloved Comrade Kotnis Hua, Your giant image Will through our actions, every day, Remain untarnished in our minds forever.

In the 1960s and 1970s bollywood movIes struck an emotIonal chord In the hearts and mInds of the chInese and people on the street hum the tunes of songs from these fIlms even today. In recent tImes movIes lIke 3 IdIots and the LIfe of PI have also been well receIved.

Cultural exchanges continued during the days of struggle for self-governance. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is another Indian who is revered and loved by all. Since 1911, Chinese scholars and intellectuals have been visiting and revisiting Tagore’s life, works and philosophy. A Chinese production of Gurudev’s June 2013  India-China Chronicle |39|

INFOCUS | INDIA-CHINA | HISTORICAL TIES | COVER

the broad contours of IndIachIna cultural cooperatIon was laId down In the agreement on cultural cooperatIon sIgned In may 1988, whIch provIded for an executIve cultural exchange programme (cep) for ImplementatIon. In 2010 chInese premIer wen JIabao and IndIan premIer manmohan sIngh agreed to cooperate In a gamut of cultural fIelds

famous play Chitrangada, opened to packed houses at Lanzhou University in 2012. A full Chinese transcript of Rabindra Sangeet was released at the Central Conservatory of Music for the first time the same year.

In the 1960s and 1970s Bollywood movies such as Do Bigha Zameen, Awara and Sree 420 of Raj Kapoor and Noorie struck an emotional chord in the hearts and minds of the Chinese and people on the street hum the tunes of songs from these films even today. In recent times movies like 3 Idiots and the Life of Pi have also been well received. In 1986, a film delegation from India had visited China and since 1988 both countries have been bringing their people together through structured Cultural Exchange Programmes.

In the last 30 years or so, both countries have made remarkable progress. In 2003, Prime Minister Vajpayee had committed to build an Indian style Buddhist temple in Luoyang, Henan province, which was inaugurated in May 2010. In February 2007, the Xuanzhang memorial hall was inaugurated at Nalanda.

In June 2008, two joint stamps were released, one depicting the Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya and the other depicting the White Horse temple at Luoyang. A Centre for Indian studies was set up in Peking University in 2003. Chairs of Indian Studies have also been

|40| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

established in Shenzhen University, Jinan University and Fudan University.

The broad contours of India-China cultural cooperation was laid down in the Agreement on Cultural Cooperation signed in May 1988, which provided for an executive Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) for implementation. In 2010 Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh agreed to cooperate in a gamut of cultural fields including exchange of visits of performing artists, officials, writers, archivists and archaeologists, organizing cultural festivals, film festivals and exchanges in the field of mass media, youth affairs and sports. While young China expresses a great desire to know Buddhism, Bollywood and Yoga, young India admires the Chinese economic miracle.

Lately, both countries have emerged as powerhouses of the world economy and face similar challenges of development. Both countries together comprise two-fifth of humanity and yet they both lag behind the West in economic and social development in the 20th Century. However, the western hemisphere has concluded that 21st Century belongs to Asia, largely to the two nations – China and India.

Indeed, the future stands with the two neighbours today just as it did in ancient times.

Undoubtedly, history repeats itself. The two nations had come close with the opening of trade routes in ancient times. It had paved the way for exchange of ideas and development of knowledge, advancement of literature and fine arts, explorations of new frontiers of science and metaphysical realms. Ultimately, when the civilisational interactions and intercourses had moved beyond trade, the impact was far more deep rooted and widespread in society, aptly termed as the golden period.

Today the trade routes have reopened. Now it is the time to look beyond trade. Intense and increased interactions and intercourses beyond trade will help to revive the golden period once again. Both India and China have vibrant cultures and people. Buddhism, Hieun Tsang, Tagore, Dr. Kotnis, Nalanda, yoga and cinema are only symbols of our long tradition of exchange.

They are testimonies of our shared heritage. The momentum has been set and the pace can only increase in the 21st century. While writing this piece, I suddenly realised that both countries are like the wings of a mythical phoenix and between them is the greatest mountain range which acts as its backbone. Both the wings must complement each other to gain pace and fly into the 21st Century. I strongly believe that the phoenix shall fly! 

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The Reformer

eng once said he had three vices: “I drink, I spit, and I smoke.”

Compared to the vices of his predecessor Mao, these were not very interesting. Unlike Mao, Deng was a family man with loving children and grandchildren. He spent the last 10 years of his life trying to shed power. If the story of revolution is one of armies battling across a stormy landscape, the tale of reform—in some circumstances also a saga—is a story of meetings, memos, and nuanced signals in editorials in the official press. For this reason, a biography of Deng is inevitably a drier document than one of Mao, often verging on general political history and the study of public policy. But not if the biography is written by one of his own – his daughter Deng Rong.

Though small in stature, Deng, who died in February 1997, possessed the courage of several men. It was this bravery which helped him to defeat the outdated leftist dogma, initiate reforms and open China to the outside world and catapult millions of Chinese into prosperity.

And it is this daring and resolve in the face of overwhelming odds that is captured in probably the best book on the late leader. Deng Xiaoping and the Cultural Revolution – a Daughter Recalls the Critical Years provides an observant, personal insight into the life of Deng as seen through the eyes of his fourth child.

Deng Xiaoping’s greatest contribution to modern China came when this revolutionary was well into his 70s, and the backlash against the Cultural Revolution had propelled him to the top of China’s ruling elite.

Ascending to power in 1978, Deng ridiculed the Cultural Revolution slogan that held it was “better to be poor under socialism than rich under capitalism.” The blunt, practical Deng offered instead: “Poverty is not socialism.” He encouraged the creation of a market economy and capitalistlike enterprises, and by the early 1990s his reforms had helped lift an estimated 170 million peasants out of extreme poverty.

Yet he refused to abolish, either because of temperament or politics or both, the power of the Communist Party over the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens. To do so would have meant abandoning the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology on which the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.

Born in 1904 to a prosperous landowner in a village 65 miles from Chongqing in the south-central province of

Sichuan, Deng turned to revolutionary thought early, and his résumé as a Communist is almost as long as Mao Zedong’s.

Deng rose quickly through the party ranks once the Communists seized power in 1949, becoming general secretary in 1955. Deng’s pragmatic ideas for economic development, however, often put him at odds with Mao, who emphasised egalitarian policies and revolutionary zeal.

Deng’s remark about the irrelevance of colour to a cat’s mice-catching ability came during one of their feuds over economic policy in the early 1960s. Mao once complained that Deng treated him “like a dead ancestor” and later quipped, “Which emperor authorised that?” when Deng ordered the turnover of collective lands to individual peasants to help relieve the famines of 1959-62.

Perhaps the most remarkable turns of Deng Xiaoping’s career were his amazing comebacks from three political purges. Deng’s most glorious year was 1984, when he reached 80 years of age. China’s food supply hit 400 million tonnes of grain, making the nation self-sufficient. That same year Deng successfully negotiated an agreement with the British government to return Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997, the year Britain’s 99-year lease on much of the territory was to expire. Deng left China a more stable and prosperous nation than at any time in the 20th century.  June 2013  India-China Chronicle |41|

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EXClusivE Down mEmoRy lanE: DEng Xiaoping

A Daughter’s Journey Deng Rong recalls the critical years of her father, Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997).

Deng Rong , daughter of Deng Xiaoping (China’s reformist leader who pioneered ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and promoted socialist market economy) pens her father’s experiences in her book, Deng Xiaoping and the Cultural Revolution. The book, first published in China 2000, has been translated and published in other languages. It is being translated into Hindi by ICEC. We bring our readers excerpts:

M

Trouble Begins at Home

ao Zedong was not in Beijing, but he ordered the convening of an enlarged session of the Politburo, to be chaired by his successor, Vice-chairman of the Central Committee and the President of the People’s Republic, Liu Shaoqi.

Liu didn’t realize that everything Mao did at that time, and many, many things, which displeased and angered him, were not simply brought on by the immediate matters of Peng Zhen, Luo Ruiqing, Lu Dingyi and Yang Shangkun.

After the failure of the “Great Leap Forward” in 1958, and particularly after the rectification of the rash policies in the 60’s, Mao started being dissatisfied with Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.

|42| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

They shared the responsibility for general work in the Central Committee, but in many respects, their ideas were not in harmony with his own. Naturally, he was most angry with the higher-ranking Liu Shaoqi.

In keeping with his goal of “continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat” so as to prevent “revisionism” and a “return of capitalism”, Mao had already made up his mind. He decided to replace Liu Shaoqi by Lin Biao as his designated successor as leader of the communist party. Lin always made a point of posing as being assiduously “faithful” to Mao and all of his theories.

Liu Shaoqi was not aware of Mao’s intention, not was Deng Xiaoping,

nor was the high-ranking Party leaders. Nor were they prepared for the thunderclap events, which rapidly followed, and Mao’s completely irrational thoughts and deeds. And when they finally did realize what was happening, they couldn’t understand it. It was this “slow-wittedness” on their part which made them “unable to keep up” with developments, and commit “errors” which, of course, resulted in their being drowned in the mad floodwaters of the “revolution”.

On May 25, the day before the meeting scheduled to criticize Peng, Luo, Lu and Yang, a large poster was put up on the campus of Peking University. It was signed by seven persons, including a woman named

Nie Yuanzi, who was secretary of the Communist Party’s general branch of the philosophy department. The poster attacked the University’s party Committee, plus the Party Committee of the Beijing Municipal Government.

Instigated and planned by Kang Sheng, this was the notorious “First MarxistLeninist Poster”. It launched the Cultural Revolution.

The poster threw Peking University into an uproar. My sister Deng Nan, who was a student there, after reading, immediately phoned my mother. “Nei Yuanzi is a bad person,” Mama said.

“She behaved badly in Yan’an. Don’t tell anybody I said so!”

She was reflecting what my father thought. He was very much against this sudden assault.

The storm had begun. No one could stop it. A thousand more posters went up at the University expressing a broad diversity of opinions. Posters criticizing the deans of nearly every college and middle school and voicing declarations of revolt proliferated throughout the city. After June 1, a flurry of posters flew in all of Beijing’s schools and academies. An irresistible surge spread like the plague. The schools were chaotic. Revolts multiplied and became more intensive. In some schools the principals and teachers excoriated, even beaten.

On May 28, the Central Committee officially established a Cultural Revolution Leading Group. On the instructions of Mao Zedong, it was headed by Chen Boda, with Kang Sheng as advisor. Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao were vice-leaders. Yao Wenyuan was named a member. These people, who formerly had been scheming in private, could now openly play major roles. In full armor and war paint, they took the stage.

Mao’s fundamental principle was “smash first, then build”. He believed that “only chaos under the heavens can bring stability throughout the land.” From his vantage point away from the scene of action, he found the destruction and turmoil in Beijing eminently satisfactory.

But in Beijing, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping, responsible for running the major affairs of the

party and government, were put in a very difficult position by the sudden anarchy.

May 29. Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping, the three Politburo Standing Committee, summoned all of the concerned departments to discuss developments in the Cultural Revolution. It was decided to send one work group under Chen Boda to the People’s Daily, Peking University.

Zhou Enlai telephoned Mao Zedong in Hangzhou, telling him of the decision, and requesting approval. A formal request, signed jointly by Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, was formally dispatched by telegram to Mao on the 30th. His reply came the same evening: “I agree to this course of action”.

Liu Shaoqi waS not aware of Mao’S intention, nor waS Deng Xiaoping, nor waS the high-ranking party LeaDerS. nor were they prepareD for the thunDercLap eventS, which rapiDLy foLLoweD, anD Mao’S coMpLeteLy irrationaL thoughtS anD DeeDS. While the Central Committee top leaders were busily trying to cope with the confusion, the movement suddenly changes. On June 1, Mao Zedong stated his approval of Nei Yuanzi’s poster.

He directed the Xinhua News Agency to broadcast it in its entirety, and ordered its publication by all newspapers and periodicals. He said: “This marks the commencement of the smashing of Peking University’s reactionary fortress.”

People’s Daily on June 1 immediately published an editorial entitled “Sweep Away All Ox Demons and Venomous Spirits”.

The editorial called on the masses to “sweep away the ox demons and venomous spirits smothering our ideology and culture”, to “squeeze the juice out of the so-called ‘experts’, ‘scholars’, ‘authorities’ and ‘venerables’ of the bourgeoisie, and drag their prestige through

the mud.” A draft of the editorial was whipped together overnight by Chen Boda, and published the next morning without prior notice to the Central Committee. That night, the Central People’s Radio Station broadcast the poster of Nie Yuanzi and her six collaborators.

Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping were completely taken by surprise. In the days that followed, People’s Daily issued a series of provocative editorials, reports and articles. The situation veered sharply downward, and the movement spread swiftly throughout the land.

On June 3, Liu Shaoqi hastily convened an enlarged session of the Standing Committee of the Politburo to discuss how to deal with the situation, and invited responsible members of related ministries and commissions to attend. The meeting reached a general consensus on Eight principles to govern participants in the Cultural Revolution: distinguish between internal and external matters; keep confidential matters secret; do not put up posters in the streets; no linking of revolutionary groups in different organizations; no parades and demonstrations; no large denunciation meetings; no surrounding of the homes of accused persons; and no beatings or vilifications.

Most of the capital’s schools and academies were virtually paralyzed.

It was decided to send work teams to them, or any place where trouble erupted – quickly, like fire brigades.

Deng Xiaoping said the Eight Principles should be disseminated immediately. They should be announced at a huge mass meeting. We must delve to the heart of the matter, he said.

The Beijing Municipal party Committee promptly dispatched work teams to a number of colleges and middle schools. But because persons behind the scenes were backing the rebels, not only were the work teams unable to stop the spread of the turmoil, they found it increasingly difficult to control the situation. Liu, Zhou and Deng repeatedly to analyze the numerous complications that were emerging.

Many important policy questions could not be decided because Mao was not in Beijing. On June 9, Liu, Zhou June 2013  India-China Chronicle |43|

INFOCUS | CHINA | BOOK EXCERPT rsart.com

courtesy: www.postmaste rsart.com

courtesy: www.postmaste

Deng Xiaoping and his

and Deng traveled to Hangzhou and reported to Mao Zedong. From the 10th to the 12th, Mao conducted two meetings where the Cultural Revolution was discussed. They were quite informal, and touched on every aspect, including speculation that it might go on for another half year or so. But there were no specific proposals on how it should be conducted.

As to the work teams, Mao said it wasn’t good to send them too quickly.

They weren’t prepared. It was better to let things bubble for a while and have some pitched battles. That would clarify the situation. Then the work teams could be sent in.

Liu, Zhou and Deng returned to Beijing. Zhou was due to go abroad.

He entrusted responsibility for guiding the movement to Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. Starting from 6th June, the new Beijing Municipal party Committee, learning from the experience of the |44| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

group which had gone to Peking University, now sent work teams to a number of colleges, academics and schools.

Liu and Deng hoped in this way the Party could maintain leadership of the movement and halt the turmoil and restore order. They supported the work teams, and met separately with various members of the team to keep tabs on what was happening and provide guidance.

On June 4, Deng met with the work team, which was operating in the Girls’ High School affiliate of Beijing Normal University. They talked about the current wave against the teachers accused of being “ bourgeois academic authorities”.

“If they really are cultured, you should welcome them,” Deng said.

“Girls’ High has a pretty fair record in math and physics. Good schools are famous; everybody knows about them, they have standing. It takes good teachers to cultivate good students. You, the

family

work team, should make distinctions.

Your job is to educate the kids, help improve their ability to analyze. Have they beaten anyone? Hitting shows you have no brains, that reason isn’t your side.

“Criticisms should be well prepared. Facts must be checked, and presented in a calm reasonable manner.

Some people may be a part of a ‘black gang’. Most are not. If everyone who said anything wrong were marked bad, there wouldn’t be any good people.

Don’t call a struggle meeting if there isn’t sufficient evidence. Don’t permit any torture in disguise, or putting on dunce caps. Later, you should apologize for things you’ve done wrong.

“Political questions must be solved in a political manner. There are plenty of good Party Committees in the schools. Most of the principals and assistant principals are good, too. What sense would it be to wreck the Party, and the Youth League? Would you call

that victory? After all, our country is a dictatorship of the proletariat led by the Communist party. The vast majority of the teachers are good. I don’t agree that all the teachers are bad!”

I’ve reported these words in detail because they show two things: First, that Deng Xiaoping ideologically and as a matter of policy rejected the theory of “rebellion”. Second, that he didn’t see the pint of the political movement Mao Zedong had launched, today nothing of going along with in word or deed.

Because of his criticisms of the way the work teams were performing, the turmoil in the schools and in society generally subsided a bit. Anarchy was halted. On June 28, he and Liu Shaoqi convened an enlarged session of the standing committee of the Politburo.

They stressed that the movement must be orderly, and called for specific principles easier to enforce.

Although completely unprepared for his sudden insane movement, Liu and Deng made rational decisions, correct decisions. Like the vast majority of Party and government functionaries.

They hoped the schools would return to normal, that the students would go back to class, and that the capital would be peaceful again.

They didn’t know that their methods were basically at variance with Mao Zigong’s intentions. Or that the clique in the Cultural Revolution Group was even then gathering itself to spur on the students and support their rebellion.

For Jiang Qing and her gang thought, a state of utter confusion provided the best stage they could come forward on and perform.

The Cultural Revolution was contrived from top to bottom. Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, and the rest of their clique grabbed the “revolutionary” enthusiasm and naïveté of the students, inflaming them with a lot of demagogic flummery. As a result, the work teams sent in by the Central Committee were unable to calm things down. In fact, in a number of schools they were hotly opposed by the “revolutionary masses”, and driven away.

Because of their different attitude toward the work teams, the students split into two factions: the “conservatives” and the “rebels”. These were, in essence, a manifestation of the opposing stands between the top leadership in the Central Committee headed by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and

the Cultural Revolution Group under Lin Biao and Jiang Qing.

In July, the situation was tense. The Central Committee convened three meetings, on the 13th, the 19th, and the 22nd, to discuss the work teams. Chen Boda, speaking on behalf of the Cultural Revolution Group, said the work teams suppressed democracy and threw cold water on the masses. He demanded that they be withdrawn.

Liu Shaoqi, responding angrily, got into a heated argument with Kang Sheng. Deng Xiaoping, usually so restrained, jumped to his feet.

Pointing a finger at Chen Boda, he shouted: “You fellows say we’re afraid of the masses. Go and see for yourself ! Pull out the work teams?

Nothing doing!”

The open clash between the Central Committee and the Cultural Revolution Group, from ideology to language, grew white hot.

The turmoil continued for more than a month. In some schools Red Guard units were formed. Meetings excoriating the schools’ leaders, the “black gang”, the “ox demons and venomous spirits” grew in intensity. Some June 2013  India-China Chronicle |45|

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victims were tormented and beaten.

Work team advocated clashed with those opposed. Factionalism gave rise to the formation of factions.

There were no more classes in high schools and colleges. Debates went on day and night. Members of the Cultural Revolution group visited all the schools, fanning the flames, urging rebellion. Liu and Deng had no choice but to go to the schools personally and reason with the students.

I remember one time when Papa went to a college to join in the discussion and answer students’ questions.

Liu, Deng, Zhou Enlai, and other high leaders spoke to the students and urged moderation. They sounded rather weak and helpless. These old veterans who had devoted their lives to the people’s revolution were flabbergasted who had devoted their lives to the people’s revolution were flabbergasted by the “revolutionary rebels” and their twisted ideas.

Mao Zedong had instigated the great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

He supported the rebellion. While “all was chaos under the heavens” in Beijing, he was in Hangzhou by the

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Deng Xiaoping

Other central committee leaders and Jiang Qing and members of her group were also there. The hall was crowded, slogans shook the heavens. Student emotions ran high.

Beneath the blinding floodlights, Jiang Qing screeched: “learn from the young Red Guards! Salute the young Red Guards!”

With Wang Li, then a member of the Cultural Revolution group, translating, Chen Boda made a speech in his incomprehensible Fujian Dialect.

He looked very proud of himself, absolutely elated. |46| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

aughter

and his grandd

shining waters of West Lake voicing concepts opposed to those of the leaders in Beijing.

On June 21, he said the Cultural Revolution was a political struggle, a class struggle. This is not the time to send work teams into the schools, he said. Let there be more upheavals for a while.

In a letter to Jiang Qing, dated July 8, he wrote: “Complete confusion leads to complete stability. This task today for the entire communist party, for the entire nation, is to fundamentally destroy the rightists.”

Another “battle cry” by Mao

Zedong in the Cultural Revolution!

After grandly swimming across the Yangtze at Wuhan on July 18, Mao returned to Beijing.

Mao shunned Liu Shaoqi, who came to report to him, on the excuse, he needed rest. But he listened to reports by members of the Cultural Revolution group.

From the following day till 23, in response to Mao’s instructions, Liu convened a meeting to report on the progress of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. There were strong disagreements. The Cultural Revolution Group asserted the work teams sent by the Central Committee were suppressing the students.

Mao said he felt very badly by what he found in Beijing. It was cold, quiet.

Some people were even suppressing the student movement. This was wrong, he said. It must be changed immediately.

On July 24, Mao called a joint meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee and the Cultural Revolution Group. He said the work teams had a bad effect; they hindered the movement. He ordered that they be removed.

With the work teams thus labeled, Liu and Deng, who had deployed them, of course had “committed an error”.

On July 29, at a meeting of ten thousand called by the Beijing Municipal party Committee in the Great Hall of the People, the work teams were officially dissolved.

Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping all spoke.

“It must be made clear that the dispatch of the work teams to the colleges and middle schools by the Beijing Municipal party Committee was done in accordance with the decision of the Central Committee,” Deng said.

“Some comrades say old revolutionaries are faced with new problems. That certainly is the case.”

Zhou Enlai said: “The majority of the comrades in the work teams are good. Old revolutionaries are indeed faced with new problems.”

To the huge audience Liu Shaoqi said: “You’re not very clear on how to conduct the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’. You’re asking us. Frank-

ly, I don’t know either. I believe many comrades in the Central Committee, and many members of the work teams, don’t know either.”

Liu, Zhou and Deng, although accepting responsibility, were speaking from their hearts.

As one of the Red Guard representatives from my school, I also attended. I remember it very clearly. A hush fell on that board presidium; you could have heard a pin drop in that spacious hall of ten thousand. We were members of

I

our school’s pro-work team faction. As we listened, we wept. Deep inside we could sense the opposition and frustration behind the words spoken by my father’s generation.

I remember, too, when the meeting was ending, how Mai Zedong suddenly appeared on the presidium. He bore an aura of incomparable greatness as he waved a greeting to the huge assemblage.

The audience went wild. Young Red Guards excitedly jumped and cheered, tears streaming down their faces. In

their eagerness to see Chairman Mao, people in the rear scramble atop desks and chairs.

“Long live Chairman Mao!” they shouted emotionally.

The solemnity and heaviness that had marked the start of the meeting was instantly converted into a sea of joy. From that day on, all wraps were off Mao Zedong’s Great Proletarian Cultural revolution. Implacably it rolled into the next stage: “To rebel is justified!”

Down with Liu, Deng, Tao!

n 1967, the movement had already been in existence for over a year. Chairman Mao had started it, pushed its development, supported the rebellion of the “left” factions, criticized and eliminated all “ reactionary” forces impeding the movement’s expansion, and established new “revolutionary” governing bodies. All achieved success exceeding his expectations. If that was his goal, he should have been satisfied.

Wasn’t his aim to guarantee that China would not go revisionist, to preserve forever the revolutionary spirit and a revolutionary line, to inject by revolutionary methods fresh into organizations, personnel, and even high governmental authority?

But, as Mao, himself often said the movement kept accelerating, like an over-loaded truck hurtling forward at full speed. Nothing in the world could resist the fierceness of its spring, the surge of its impetus. Not even Mao himself. Its rhythm, its direction, could no longer be controlled – even more so because it was an incorrect movement based on erroneous ideology and a wrong appraisal. Because of its flawed nature, it could only stagger along on a twisting path beyond the will of any individual.

Mao wanted the criticisms of Liu and Deng to be different from the criticisms of Peng Zhen, Luo Ruiqing, Lu Dingyi and Yang Shangkun. This displeased Lin Biao and the Cultural Revolution group. They wanted immediate complete overthrow of Liu and Deng,

and began preparations for huge mass denunciation meetings, intending to thereby hasten Mao’s support of their approach.

On July 15, the Central Committee General Office submitted a request for instructions to the Cultural Revolution group regarding proposed denunciations of Liu Shaoqi. Chen Boda, as head of the Group, put a check beside Liu’s name, and added the names: “Deng, Tao and their wives.”

In preparations for a mass meeting denouncing Liu Shoaqi, Jiang Qing, kang sheng and Chen Boda, on July 18 ordered a search of Liu’s home, and decreed that he be deprived of his freedom. Our old orderly Wu Hongjun called our mother to a hallway in the rear of our house and said softly: “They searched Liu Shaoqi’s place today, and went off with a whole truckload of stuff. I hear they’ll be coming here tomorrow. Better get your things in order, fast!”

People today cannot imagine how frightening it was to have your house searched. If a rebel faction found something they called “criminal evidence” in the house of an innocent person it might lead to his death. Although we children had heard a lot about these searchers, we had not taken part in them ourselves, nor had we seen them in operation. After Liu Shaoqi’s house was searched, we knew we had to prepare. We examined everything carefully. In those troubled times there was no limit to your trepidation. (Whether or not you were being investigated it was

better to check through your things again and again, and be prepared for the worst.)

Our furnishings were simple, no luxuries, no special frills. Mama had a few bottles of perfume given to her

by Russian friends when she was in the Soviet Union. They had never been opened. My two sisters and I took them to the bathroom and poured them down the sink, carefully opening the taps and flushing them away. The mixture of the water and the perfume must have caused some sort of chemical reaction, for the drain gurgled and spewed up a lot of white bubbles.

Looking back, the incident was laughable, and very stupid: we got rid of perfume but kept the bottles. It wouldn’t have been too bad if the rebels found bottles filled with perfume but if they found empty bottles they could have claimed we made lavish use of perfume in a typical affluent bourgeois manner! Fortunately, the bottles escaped the search party’s notice.

My greatest regret is that we destroyed photos we were afraid the rebels would seize upon as “criminal evidence”. They showed various members of our family together with Peng Zhen, Luo Ruiqing and Yang Shangkun, and pictures of Mama when she was a young student at Peking University.

We consigned all of them to the flames.

They are gone forever.

The next day, July 19, the rebel faction in Zhongnanhai summoned Papa and Mama to Huairentang, which was next door, saying they needed to quesJune 2013  India-China Chronicle |47|

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tion them. After my parents left, members of the rebel faction came to our house and began to search.

They went first to my father’s office and his reception room, then to our living quarters. They searched high and low, but found nothing.

Papa took no notes at meetings, or any place else, ordinarily. He never wrote out his speeches in advance. At most he jotted a few words on a slip of paper. He did write on documents issued to him, inscribing his comments and handling the documents to his secretary to be returned the same day he received them. He retained no documents. His office was always clean and neat. Except for few books, there was nothing in it.

A half-day’s search produced not even a straw for the rebel faction. “Not a single note,” the searchers fumed.

“How can a general Secretary operate that way!”

They couldn’t leave with absolutely

nothing. So they came to where we children lived. Again a thorough search ended in failure.

My brother Feifei was home that day. They asked him what he was doing. He said he was reading Journey to the West (a Chinese classical novel). In fact, he had in his pocket the cards my father played bridge with. Luckily, they didn’t search Feifei or they would have discovered criminal evidence – Deng Xiaoping’s playing cards! (I remember one poster which listed among Papa’s “crimes”: “He liked to play bridge and enjoy himself.”)

The rebel faction demanded that we produce our money and our deposit books. They thought our family was rich. It never occurred to them that because we had a large family with lots of expenses, we didn’t have a penny put away, in fact we owed the Office 200 Yuan we had borrowed. Instead of unearthing evidence of Deng Xiaoping’s corrupt life-style, the rebels had to

leave empty-handed.

The house search meant that Papa was formally “overthrown”. On July 29, “revolutionary masses” in Zhongnanhai in the name of his Party branch denounced Papa, and gave him three days within which to present a “request for punishment”. It announced that from that day on, Papa and Mama had lost their freedom of movement.

The slanders and denunciations were more than Papa could bear.

He wrote a letter of Wang Dongxing as follows: “You are no doubt aware of the meeting of my Party branch this morning. In addition, the Foreign Languages Institute wants me to hand in a confession before July 30. My Party branch has given me three days. It is only reasonable that I should request instructions from Chairman Mao and the Central Committee on how to deal with such matters. Phoning you is not convenient. I enclose a letter to Chair-

amily.com

courtesy: www.chinatopf

Deng Xiaoping’s politic

|48| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

man Mao asking him to see him. Please forward it for me.”

In his letter to Mao Zedong, Papa said: “ When we met in May, Chairman, you said I could write to you directly if it became necessary.

This morning, July 29, Party branches in several organizations held meetings at which they exposed and denounced me for errors and crimes. They ordered me to submit requests for punishment within three days, and thoroughly reveal how I committed the crimes of opposing the party, socialism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Chairman Mao. They also imposed certain restrictions on me. I am truly at a loss as to what to do. I sincerely hope for a chance to seek your instructions personally.

I know this request may not be appropriate, but I have no other way to express the feelings in my heart. If you are too busy, Chairman, perhaps some other comrade can come and talk with me.”

Mao Zedong did not receive Deng Xiaoping again. It was already impossible to divert the surge to

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mao Zedong and

Deng Xiaoping in

1960.

overthrow Deng.

On August 1, Papa’s secretary Wang Ruilin, and his bodyguard Zhang Baozhong, were both transferred. A new “secretary” was dispatched.

The first thing he did was to summon Mama to his office. A slogan on the wall read: “Leniency to those who confess; strictness to those who refuse.”

The “secretary” sternly demanded that Mama expose my father.

“Comrade Xiaoping never tells the family anything about his work, or regarding Party matters,” Mama said. “I know nothing about them. As to documents, the ones that require immediate attention he disposes of the same day.

The rest he sends back to the General Office. If you want to see them, you can look at them there.”

Clearly the “secretary” couldn’t fish anything out of Mama. He brought his inquisitions to end.

The searches were over. The next step was the denunciation meetings.

On August 5, to celebrate the first anniversary of Mao Zedong’s poster “Bombard the Headquarters”, Xie Fuzhi and Qi Benyu went to the “Sum-

mon Liu Vanguard” and proposed that the rebels assemble a huge mass denunciation meeting on Tiananmen Square.

At the same time they argued the rebel factions in Zhongnanhai, site of the Central Committee and the State Council, to organize criticism and denunciation sessions against Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Tao Zhu. Today, more than 30 years later, I remember the situation very well. Our family already knew what was coming, and we were ready. Mama instructed us children not to leave the house, no matter what happened.

The Zhongnanhai rebels swarmed into our home. They took Papa and Mama out to the garden and surrounded them. Rebels pushed their heads down and forced them to bend at the waist, demanding that they confess.

Roars of “Down with them!” shook the air. A string of shouted accusations followed, and a Babel of voices yelled questions. I remember it clearly. During the meeting, a girl rebel, who had been brought in from Shanghai to work in the Central Committee Secretariat, screeched in a voice that was piercingly shrill.

Mama’s eyeglasses had been removed. With her head down, she tried to steal a glance at Papa, but she couldn’t see clearly. Papa was rather deaf. Standing half-bent, he could hardly hear anything, and could answer none of the questions. He tried to offer an explanation, but the words were barely out of his mouth when he was rudely interrupted. The rebels said he had a bad attitude, that he was feigning ignorance to avoid replying.

Again there was a clamor of shouts and criticisms.

The rebels had rigged up a loudspeaker in the garden, and were broadcasting the proceedings at the mass denunciation meeting in Tiananmen Square, to let Papa and Mama hear.

My two sisters and I were in room, pressed close to the window curtains.

My sisters’ hearts in their throats when they heard the wild shouts. They didn’t dare look at the cruel scene. I stood on the table and peeked out through an opening between the curtains. I said I wanted to see; I wanted to see it all, to engrave it in my memory forever!

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |49|

INFOCUS | CHINA | BOOK EXCERPT courtesy: http://asiasocie

ty.org/

When the denunciation session ended, Mama helped Papa back to the house. He was very pale. I quickly poured him a glass of water and took him by the arm to lie down and rest.

(Thus ended that day’s noisy confusion.)

I heard later that our ordeal was relatively “civilized”. The sessions against Liu and Tao were much crueler. Liu Shaoqi was savagely beaten. After the denunciation session, and the house having been searched it could truly be said that Papa had been completely “overthrown.”

My parents were under virtual house arrest. Although we children could continue to live at home we were not allowed into the north wing where they lived. Fortunately, there were no rebels camped in our compound, and we frequently managed to slip into our parents’ quarters.

Papa, though quiet, silent, unsmiling, showed not a shred of agitation or dismay. Thanks to his steadiness, none of us was particularly discouraged, though we seldom left the house. We were aware that many of the people we knew were much worse off. It sounds strange to say, but compared to them we had no complaints.

Some things that happened in our most difficult period our family will always remember.

We lived near Huairentang in a small lane containing the homes of four families from north to south. Li Fuchun was in the first, Tan Zhenlin was in the second, we were in the third, and Chen Yi was in the fourth. All were old Army veterans, old comrades. Our relations were very close. The children grew up together, and played together like brothers and sisters.

After the Cultural Revolution broke out, with its plethora of posters and slogans, every one of the families was kept busy answering charges, and had no time to be concerned about anyone else. We were even less inclined to go out after Papa was dismissed. We didn’t want to meet people.

One day my big sister Deng Lin and I walked to the end of the lane, and saw Uncle Chen Yi and his bodyguard coming toward us. We guessed from his depressed expression that he had just been reading posters. We hadn’t |50| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

seen him in a long time. He was much thinner. The infectious smile we had known since childhood was gone. But he still stood ramrod straight. We knew he had been charged with involvement in the “February Countercurrent”. We didn’t want to get him implicated in our troubles as well, and deliberately avoided him.

His eyes lit up when he saw us. His frown vanished. Calling our names, he strode over. He bent from the waist, as if in a bow.

“Is everybody well?”

We were stunned for a moment.

Then we realized who he was referring to. My eyes filled with tears, “We’re all fine,” I quickly replied.

“That’s good, that’s good,” Uncle Chen Yi said.

Again his face fell. He walked slowly deeper into the lane.

We were very moved. We didn’t know this was the last time we would see Uncle Chen Yi alive.

Another time, our orderly Old Wu came back. He gave Mama a pack of cigarettes for Papa. He said he had met Young Kong, Li Fuchun’s bodyguard in

the lane. After looking around to make sure no one was near, Young Kong slipped him the cigarettes. “Comrade Fuchun says they’re for comrade Xiaoping,” he whispered.

When Mama and Papa saw the cigarettes, they didn’t say anything for a long time. In days of trouble, their old comrades had not forgotten them!

A year earlier Papa had sent Peng Zhen oranges. Today, Li Fuchun sent cigarettes to Deng Xiaoping. How the world has changed.

A little more than a month later, on September 13, Old Wu suddenly came rushing in. He said Liu Shaoqi’s children had been driven out of their home, driven out of Zhongnanhai!

The three middle school students were allowed to take one bedroll each and a bicycle, and were forced to return to their schools. The maid was given charge of the little girl who was in primary school and compelled to take her away. Old Wu urged us to prepare.

Only Deng Nan and I were at home then. We talked it over with Mama and agreed: We would not be driven out as the Liu children were. If we had to go,

Deng Xiaoping meets

with British prime min

we would all go to the same place. Our old Grandma, Papa’s stepmother, lived with us. If we children had to move to our schools, what would happen to her? She had been with us since Liberation. At her age we couldn’t leave her with nowhere to go. Liu Shaoqi’s children were younger than we were. Driving them away was brutal. We couldn’t be like them. We couldn’t let others manipulate our lives!

Our minds made up, we steeled ourselves for whatever would come.

Before long people from the rebel faction and the Central Committee General Office came. In an ugly manner they ordered us to return to school, and ordered Grandma to go back to her village. They gave us two hours to “get out of Zhongnanhai!”

Papa and Mama, under house arrest in their rooms, could not come out, but my sister and I agreed with the rebels: “We’ll leave, but you have to find us a place to live. We absolutely refuse to return to school. Grandma can’t go

ister margaret Thatcher

in september, 1982.

back to her village. There’s no one there to look after her. Do you want her to die? You’ll have to tie us up and drag us away, otherwise we won’t go!”

The rebels shouted, we shouted back. They got tough, we got tougher.

We yelled with all our might, tears streaming down our cheeks. Unable to do anything with us, the rebels left temporarily.

And then we really wept, crying aloud. All of the unhappiness we had felt, all of the anger we had suppressed since the day Papa was criticized, plus our latest misery over the impending separation from our parents, now gushed forth in an irrepressible flood.

Since leaving was inevitable, we phoned Big Sister Deng Lin to come home from school. We girls began going through our things in the west wing. Mama got busy in the north rooms. We examined every nook and cranny. Every time Mama found anything useful, she gave

it to us. She and Papa wanted us to take along everything we could carry.

In the end, we won. The rebels notified us they had found two rooms in a one-story building near Zhongnanhai.

They ordered us to “clear out” within two hours. Each of us, in turn, slipped into the north wing to say goodbye to our parents. Mama hastily brought more things from her room and gave them to us. There were tears in her eyes.

When she handed me something, her hands felt burning hot.

Papa was in a corridor in the rear. I quickly kissed him and left. We children were his greatest love. I didn’t dare look at him too long. I knew that he was strong, fearless, that he rarely showed joy or anger. But to be separated from the children who had been constantly at his side, perhaps never see them again, would be an enormous blow.

No political misfortune could floor him. But could he withstand a final separation from his loved ones?  June 2013  India-China Chronicle |51|

INFOCUS | INTERVIEW | NIIT

Huge brand respect in China

NIIT will be all over China’s hot spots As the head of Career Building Solutions of NIIT, G Raghavan, has been associated with China as a consultant to the Government of Wuxi New District. Present across 100 locations already, Raghavan hopes to expand NIIT’s presence in China on a much bigger scale.

He shares with Urmila Rao, NIIT’s business strategy, his vision for further expansion and the mantra of success.

|52| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

How many offices do you have in China? How many more do you want to open?

In China we are present in more than 100 locations. Our head office is in Shanghai and we have large centres in locations like Chongqing, Qingdao, Wuxi, Suzhou, Haikou, Chengdu, Changzhao, Zhangjiagang, Jiaxing etc. We are currently in the process of expanding these centres as well. The government has announced 20 hot spots. These are basically cities which have been marked as potential IT outsourcing locations in the country.

It is our intention to be in all the 20 in the next three-four years.

How has NIIT’s experience been in terms of bureaucratic challenges and adjustment with Chinese culture?

Building talent is a priority for most countries in the world and definitely for China. Hence, they are helpful to organizations which are building talent for them. We are not in an industry where we are competing with the Chinese. We are helping them to become more talented. Therefore, what we are doing is in the same direction as the Chinese government and the provincial governments. Hence, there is no hindrance.

How many people are currently employed in the China offices of NIIT? We have about 200 people employed, 96-97% of whom are Chinese with only a handful of Indian managers. We try and recruit people locally so that they feel comfortable and produce their best. There are some positive points about Chinese employees; they are hard working, they are disciplined and are thorough in what they do. But they require a properly laid out system to work. In absence of a standard system, it is not possible to get the best output from Chinese workers.

How do you overcome the language barrier in day to day operations?

Language, at times, is an issue.

But most of our employees are

Chinese speaking and some speak both, Chinese and English. We have translated our content into Chinese so that we are able to impart training in the language that the students can understand. Students are our end– customers.

Can you give some tips to IT entrepreneurs who wish to do business in China?

Chinese can’t work in a chaotic system. In our line of work, which continually requires new inventions and creativity, we experience that the Chinese slow down. Actually they get quite foxed. Hence, a standard system needs to be laid down. In terms of starting operations, in our business, it takes three to four months. Educational licence is required to open new centres, and then physical infrastructure needs to be set up. Recruitment and training of staff comes next. Finally, we start

the opportunity size is very large at a 1.4 billion people location. so we have to be much bigger than we are today. the admission process. As regards promotion, we do a lot of studentbased activities such as internet marketing, college seminars etc to attract students. I must admit that more than 90-95% of our students join the course with us with the objective of getting a job. We assist them in placements.

Do you see your business getting affected because of new policies that might come from the new leadership?

Developing human capacities has always been a priority for China. If anything is reinforced it does not get diluted. So, we do not anticipate that the policies of the central government leadership will affect this trend. As of now it’s only fair to say that time will show. The other aspect about China is that it operates through a very highly

decentralised but empowered system, so it is not as though everything you do in a province requires a central approval. The provinces are run like cities with their own little autonomous businesses and the leaders in the provincial levels have lot of power to develop the province. Hence we don’t think that the leadership change at the centre will have any telling effect on us as we work closely with the provincial governments.

As an organisation have you encountered any kind of corruption hindering your operations?

Not at all. It all goes back to the context. The context that is very relevant to China and her economy.

The business is that we are in, is a very important service to that country. We are training their people to make them more skilled. So we are not trying to sell or buy anything from the Chinese government. Hence, we have not had any experiences with corruption as an organization. I don’t have any personal experience about it either.

What is your strategy for securing your place and fending off competition from local players?

The key thing about us is that we are offering value and our courses are all based on very rich content. It is hands on in terms of their ability to train students. Besides, we carry the benefit of 30 years of being in the industry and those benefits get reflected in our content and the methodologies that we use. Besides, the need is so large that in many of the centres we have partnership with the provincial governments, in some other places we work with universities and colleges which use our curriculum. We have a high brand respect in China.

Are you happy with the net profits you get from this part of the world?

No! However, when I say ‘no’ it doesn’t mean that I am sad. I’m just saying that the opportunity size is very large at a 1.4 billion people location.

So we have to be much bigger than we are today. Hence, in that respect I’m not satisfied  June 2013  India-China Chronicle |53|

Steamy Stuff

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or all those momo fans back home, let me take you through an amazing journey through the steamy world of dumplings!

Anybody visiting a Chinese restaurant must have ordered dumplings some time or the other – like any foreigner visiting an Indian restaurant must have ordered naan or Indian bread. But of course, we desis know that Indian bread does not just mean naan – but covers the whole range of chapatti, roti, naan, butter naan, kulcha, stuffed kulcha, parantha, stuffed parantha…..The list can go on if one was to cover the entire country’s bread preference! Needless to say then, in a country as large as China, there must also be a variety of dumplings that have been developed over centuries for food connoisseurs to revel in. Here’s an introduction to some that are readily available in Shanghai.

If you stroll out in the morning, you will find vendors behind little stands with huge baskets placed on top of a steamer.

These baskets contain one of the most

|54| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

popular breakfast dishes of China – baozi, literally meaning bags. Imagine kulcha balls stuffed with juicy fillings and voila you have your baozi. Fillings can range from spicy pork to leek and mushroom or none at all, in which case the bread is known as mantou. The best part of it is that this scrumptious bag of joy costs just RMB 1-2 per bun. An authentic and fulfilling treat for those on a shoestring budget!

So after your morning stroll, when your stomach starts growling again, it is time to meet the jiaozi. The jiaozi is the most common of all dumplings available here, and is eaten generally with a sauce of red chilli paste and red vinegar (most dumplings are eaten with this accompaniment). Vegetarians need not be concerned as jiaozi with leek, eggs and sticky rice fillings are also available. Da Niang’s Dumplings and Qi Xian Dumplings are some of the famous dumpling chains in Shanghai. Depending on the store and the filling, eight jiaozi dumplings

can cost anywhere between RMB 10 and 20. Deep-fried jiaozi are hard to find here, but if the jiaozi is fried in an iron pan, then it becomes what is called guotie, another popular dish in Shanghai. Jiaozi occupies a special place in the Chinese platter as part of the Chinese New Year eve rituals where the whole family sits together to wrap the filling with the skin and eat them at midnight, thus making dumplings the first meal of the year.

Hard-core jiaozi lovers cannot escape the lure of the xiaolongbao. The xiaolongbao delicately handled by master chefs have tender, translucent skin. For consumers, what makes the xiaolongbao special is the tasty soup that oozes onto the tongue when one bites into it (be careful – the soup is hot!). One of the most popular fillings used is a mix of minced pork, crab and roe. Though the dumpling chains mentioned above do offer xiaolongbao, visitors must not miss the ones available at Nanxiang Dumplings, an old shop in Yuyuan Garden, where the queue of buyers could easily get longer than 50 metres on weekends.

While the jiaozi is of northern origin, the xiaolongbao is a southern invention. Another southern dumpling is the huntun (Wonton), which is mostly dipped in soups. Shanghai cuisine boasts of a special type of huntun – the xiao or the small huntun, with pork filling, which is often had for breakfast. These dumplings are boiled and often put into chicken stock, along with small amounts of fried egg, dried shrimp, black fungus, fresh coriander leaves and red vinegar.

After this ‘balanced diet’, a bit of indulgence with the Shanghai delicacies of shengqian and roubing is forgivable.

Shengqian is similar to a pan-fired baozi, but the frying makes

it tastier. The xianrou yuebing (fresh meat moon cakes) are typical of the south, and taste like our neighbourhood store patties but with a Chinese touch. The yuebing or moon cake cannot be strictly considered a dumpling – but it is a must try snack in Shanghai. Moon cakes are generally made during the mid-autumn festival and mostly have a sweet red filling.

Last but not the least, one cannot forget the desserts.

Tangyuan, or sweet rice dumplings, are small chewy balls made of glutinous sticky rice. Eaten specially during the lantern festival, they are often filled with sweet red mung paste – but have other filings as well (especially savoury fillings in the North).

These are just a few among the many different varieties of the “goodie bags”. As you can understand, it is not easy to write about such delicious food and not feel hungry. So I am off to gorge on some hot, steaming dumplings and hope you find some good ones on your next visit here as well… 

Sumelika Bhattacharyya Chronicle Bureau, Shanghai

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |55|

INFOCUS | CHINA | PROVINCE PROFILE

Yo!

Yunnan

Yúnnán has some of the most magical and diverse scenery in China and is endowed with rich deposits of minerals. Yunnan is the Southwestern-most province in China, with the Tropic of Cancer running through it.

ANJANI KUMAR JHA

l

ocated in the far southwest of the People’s Republic of China, Yunnan province spans approximately 394,000 sqkm (152,000 square miles) and has a population of 46.3 million (2011), comprising some 26 ethnic groups. The largest minority ethnic group in Yunnan is called “Yi”, which accounts for about 11 percent of the total population. The capital of the province is Kunming and the province shares its borders with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

The ethnic minorities in Yunnan account for about 34 percent of its total population while the major ethnic groups are Yi, Bai, Hani, Zhuang, Dai and Miao.

Located in the mountains

The province is situated in a mountainous area, with high elevations in the northwest while the Southeast has low elevations. Most of the population lives in the eastern

|56| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

part of the province. Yunnan is rich in natural resources and has the largest diversity of plant life in China with approximately 17,000 or more of the 30,000 species of higher plants that are found in China.

Yunnan also has around 600 rivers and lakes, which provide an annual water supply of 222 billion cubic meters with a projected hydropower reserve at 103 GW, and an annual exploitable capacity of 90 GW. The hydropower plants in Yunnan produce electricity which accounts for almost 20.5 percent of the country’s total electricity, thus making the province the second in China, in electricity production.

Rich Mineral Resources

Yunnan is called a bridge or a passageway connecting Southeast Asia and South Asia by land. The roadways in Yunnan stretch for over 167,000 km, of which super highways account for 2,500 km placing it at the top in western China. The province, home

to about 142 minerals, is famous for its rich natural resources such as aluminum, lead, zinc, copper and nickel.

Yunnan has 12 airports and has shaped an aviation network that is linked both domestically and internationally. In transportation too Yunnan has positioned itself as a hub through which raw materials are transported to other inland provinces.

The light industries in Yunnan are related to processing of farm produces and other natural produces, whereas most of its heavy industries are related to the processing of raw materials. As regards the heavy industries the total output has increased considerably in the past decade due to the high growth rate of the steel, electrical and cement industries.

Percentage of Gross Industrial Output (percent) 1990 2000 2011 Light 52.4 50.5 29.0 Industry Heavy 47.5 49.5 71.0 Industry Source-Yunnan Statistical Yearbook 2012

The major industrial outputs in Yunnan are sugar, cigarettes, cloth, steel and related products, hydropower, raw coal and cement and they rank among the top produces in China. Cigarette industry in one of the biggest in Yunnan, and accounted for 15 percent of the total national output by volume in 2011.

The electricity industry is an imJune 2013  India-China Chronicle |57|

INFOCUS | CHINA | PROVINCE PROFILE

A Divergence from the Plan Prashant Kumar

T

portant economic pillar of Yunnan, and plays a key role in the “West-East electricity Transmission Project”. In the area of minerals Yunnan is one of the major production bases of copper, lead, zinc, tin and aluminum in China.

Gejiu city is well known as “the kingdom of tin” with its reserves ranked first in the country.

Yunnan’s major trade exports include chemicals and related products, base metals and related products, tobacco, vegetables, fruits and cereals etc.

Owing to its geographical proximity, ASEAN is the province’s largest trading partner, and has accounted for over 57 percent of its exports in 2011. Besides ASEAN, the major export markets include India, Hong Kong, Japan and the US.

Major Industries Tobacco The tobacco industry is one of the most important industries. Yunnan has the largest production base in China for tobacco, turning out 800,000 |58| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

tonnes of tobacco and more than 380 billion cigarettes each year. More than 2.3 million farmers in the province are engaged in tobacco cultivation. The tobacco industry plays a driving role in the economy and social development of Yunnan.

Mining The province is rich in natural resources, and one can find a complete range, wide distribution, and large recoverable reserves of high value minerals. Another major resource in Yunnan is coal, which serves as a leading form of energy used in the province. It is estimated that Yunnan has a coal reservoir of 67 billion tonnes, with 23 billion tonnes already unearthed.

Over the past few decades Yunnan’s mining industry has greatly expanded.

Today Yunnan is one of the key mineral bases in China and the number of people employed in this particular industry either directly or indirectly is over 1 million. Among the large and medium sized enterprises in Yunnan, 27.9 percent belong to the mineral sector.

Power The power industry of Yunnan is the most competitive industry and hydropower is the focal point of development in Yunnan’s industry. The province is extensively populated with six major river systems comprising almost 600 rivers. These extensive systems and variations in elevation offer Yunnan a massive hydropower potential, with an estimated potential of 97 million kilowatts of power.

The province has a power generating capacity of 470,000 million kilowatthour, accounting for 25 percent of national generation capacity. The power industry in Yunnan plays an important role in Yunnan’s economic growth and also contributes to the economic and social development in south and East China.

Yunnan which is known as ‘the place south of the colorful clouds’, or ‘the place south of Yunling (cloudy ridge) Mountain’, is thus a land of varied and rich history, ethnic groups, landscapes, culture, natural resources as well a flourishing economy. 

he recent visit by the Indian Foreign Minister Mr Salman Khurshid to Beijing has expectedly brought the state of SinoIndian relations into sharp focus.

Especially as it came on the heels of the news of Chinese incursions into India and was bound to raise eyebrows in India specially as the visit had no tangible results.

The problem as we know was about the relatively deep incursion of upto 19 kms inside the Indian Territory by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and the erection of tents by the Chinese army well inside the Indian border. While the Chinese have long retreated, it took threats of the visit cancellation’s and envoy summons, not to mention, an entire week, for this to happen.

This incident was clearly a divergence from the historic plan set out by the new leader of the People’s Republic. It wasn’t too long ago, when the new Chinese president Xi Jinping,soon after assuming office, had laid out a plan for improving China’s relations with India. The five point plan, regarded by many, as a shift in Chinese foreign policy, was an indication of a growing realization that these two countries cannot survive at odds with each other and a working, functional relationship was needed.

Thus, the incursions into India beg two questions. One, whether China’s stated intentions differ from what they actually believe is the way to deal with India? And two, that whether China’s military establishment (the PLA leadership) is truly controlled by its civilian government?

I ask these questions for two reasons. The first is obvious. The move by the Chinese army into Indian Territory is a clear contradiction to the plan set out by Xi Jinping. One of his main

points was to ‘maintain peace and tranquility and to prevent border disputes from affecting overall relationship’.

Hence, the move by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) was a ‘u-turn’ from the Chinese President’s stated goal.

Perhaps the Xi Jinping led new civilian leadership in China was testing the strength of new proposed relationship, one which stemmed out of the new plan vis-à-vis India. China could have been trying to test India’s reaction, to decipher how much it can get away with and then make some appeasing statements to mollify Indian establishment’s sensibilities. This once again

showed India to be a ‘soft state’ and bring down its credibility in the global community and weaken its claim for a place in the Security Council. China could also have been testing how far it can go before Indian public opinion reaches the tipping point. Even this did not seem to have happened, other than on certain news programs with perpetually angry anchors. Clearly, China is beginning to realize that it can get away with quite a lot.

But a better understanding could emerge from the second hypothesis that the Communist Party is truly not in control of the PLA. It is well known that Xi Jinping has no real military understanding other than what he learned from his father’s (Mr. Zhongxun) relationship with the Chinese Military Commission. In recent months, it was

reported in an article by Masahiro Matsumura, an international relations professor at St. Andrews’ University, Scotland, (circulated by Project Syndicate), that Jinping did not order the radar lock on Japanese vessels circling the disputed islands by Chinese naval forces, but merely approved after it had already been ordered. As Mr. Matsumura quite rightly concluded, “Control after the fact is no control at all”. It could have thus been that this incursion into India had been a move that was waiting for the stamp of the central communist party leadership.

Hopefully this breach of an established boundary was just another ‘localized dispute’ as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put it. However, if it was not, the implications are worrisome for both India and the world. If the Chinese government actually has little control over the world’s biggest armed forces, it puts a strain on global and regional stability. The recent attempt by the commission to colonize international waters in the South China Sea has already put a few countries on alert. On the other hand, if this was an indication of perhaps what China does after it builds the hope for a better relationship, then every country should be wary of overtures of friendship from this emerging superpower. But if this was just a test to see India’s resolve and its power on the international relations front, India’s response had been clearly wanting and China has provided a good hard lesson in international politics and diplomacy. But did anyone listen? 

Prashant Kumar is Director, Bureau of Research on Industry & Economic Fundamentals, New Delhi

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |59|

T

Chinese Spring Festival 2013

he India China Economic and Cultural Council organized the First Abid Hussain Memorial Lecture on February 18, 2013 at India International Center, New Delhi. On the occasion Mr. Salman Khurshid, External Affairs Minister, delivered the lecture on “Regional Cooperation in Asia: National Challenges and Global Opportunities.” Other prominent speakers included Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning

India China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC)

Commission and Ambassador Lalit Man Singh, former foreign secretary of India.

Mr. Khurshid said, “We can nearly double India’s contribution to global GDP, and so we first need to look for national challenges”. Speaking on the issue of Iran, the minister indicated that while India will abide by global consensus on non-proliferation (of nuclear arms), trade talks with Iran has not stopped. 

(February 25, 2013 FICCI auditorium)

India China Economic and Cultural Council (February 18, 2013 at India International Center, New Delhi)

I

ndia China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC) organized the “Chinese Spring Festival 2013” at FICCI auditorium on February 25, 2013. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Wei Wei, Chinese Ambassador in India, expressed the hope for a bright future for IndiaChina relationship. “A number of exchanges in political, economic and cultural fields are going to be organized throughout the year of 2013,” Mr Wei Wei announced at the event. The Festival was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Culture, Chandresh Kumari Katoch. In her speech she said, “We hope that this celebration will serve as a platform to build stronger bridges and bonds between our two societies and

Workshop on doing Business with China

First Abid Hussain Memorial Lecture

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he Federation of Import Export Organisations (FIEO) organized a workshop in association with India China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC) on February 20, 2013 with the objective of familiarising Indian entrepreneurs from the merchandise and service sectors about the growth and opportunities in China. Speakers at the workshop shared their

Federation of Import Export Organisations (February 20, 2013)

|60| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

help in further consolidating our relationship.

Both India and China have made efforts to preserve their ancient culture and we should do more to protect and value our art and heritage. Culture has served as the basis for our shared history since ancient times and we should use this capital to further enhance mutual understanding.”

Chinese artists embellished the evening with performances in dance, music and martial arts followed by Indian performances of Indian martial Arts (gatka) by Baba Deep Singh of Ranjeet Akhara and Bhangra by a group named ‘Bhangra Nights’ from Maharaja Agrasen Technical Education Society. 

experiences of working in China and said India should learn from China’s export policies. Besides, the speakers also provided an insight into Chinese culture including the ‘do’s and don’ts’ while working with Chinese people. During the Q&A session with the panel speakers participants raised queries about issues faced by exporters and the panel provided the relevant information. 

C

inasthana Today – Viewing China from India’, a book, written by P.S.Deodhar, President of India China Economic and Cultural Council (ICEC) about China in relation to India was unveiled by Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Member of Parliament, in New Delhi on February 6, 2013. Cinasthana Today emphasizes on Chinese culture, economy and the need for India and China to maintain good bilateral relations.

The occasion was also marked by a panel discussion on “India-China Relations beyond Politics and Business” which stressed on better relationship between the two neighbours who have similar life philosophies and cultures. At the launch Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyyar said though numerous books have been published by European authors on ancient and modern China, ‘Cinasthana Today’ presented China differently, thus helping Indians to get the right perspective of that country. 

Launch of ‘Cinasthana Today’ (February 6, 2013 New Delhi)

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |61|

Shows

Exhibitions&Trade 1

In India • In China

EXHIBITION

DATE

VENUE

EVENT PROFILE

CONTACT PERSON

International Machine Tools Expo

03 – 05 May 2013

Chennai Trade Center, Chennai, India

International Machine Tools Expo is one of the prime machinery and automation sector trade shows in India with an extensive range of drilling and boring machines, grinding tools, electrical appliances, software solutions, forging equipment and other related items International exhibitors, from Belgium, Italy, Germany and Spain will also be participating with leading domestic companies.

Conventions & Fairs (India) Private Limited Mr. Nikhil Behl Tel: +91-22-28398000

2

LED Expo

04 – 06 May 2013

Nehru Centre, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

LED Expo Mumbai concentrates on the Electronic & Electrical Industry. Products Mex Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd Tel: +(91)-(11)-46464848 and services related to this sector will be exhibited in the event. It will help in the growth of the electronic industry and the companies related to it to expand Fax: +(91)-(11)-41071644

3

Agri Power Expo

04 – 06 May 2013

Bhavani Niketan Ground, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Bine Agri Power Pvt. Ltd Agri Power Expo 2013 will concentrate entirely on the agriculture, electrical Tel: +(91)-(141)-3927676 and battery industries and offer information regarding them. Attendees will get to experience a large number of products and services along with the latest advancement and technological development. More than 4000 visitors are estimated to visit and connect with above the 120 exhibitors who will exhibit their products.

POWER-GEN India & Central Asia

06 - 08 May 2013

Bombay Exhibition Center (BEC) Mumbai, India

POWER-GEN India & Central Asia is the leading event that concentrates on the power industry. The show is scheduled to be held for three days and will provide the experts and professionals of the industry with a platform to discuss about the future of the sector and share their experiences Over 7,000 people from all around the globe are expected.

Inter Ads Exhibitions Private Limited Mr. Avnish Seth Tel: +91-124-4524200

Bangalore International Trade Fair

10 – 19 May 2013

St. Joseph Indian High School

This trade show will give an opportunity to experts in the fields of Banking and financial services, Automobiles, Home Appliances, Furniture, Health, Fashion, Beauty, Fitness, Garments, Electronics and travel and tourism to build good business opportunities. . The importance and value of health care, fitness and beauty products will also be highlighted.

National Consumer Fair Event Manager Mob: +91-9362644442

6

International industrial Expo & Conferences Ludhiana

17 – 19 May 2013

Punjab Trade Centre, Ludhiana, India

Industrial goods and latest and advanced machine tools will be highlighted.

Technical experts will make the automobile industries aware of the latest products and services and the positive and contemporary changes in this field.

Contemporary instruments and equipments manufacturing industries will also take an active part in this event.

Paramount Exhibitors Mr. Harish Arora Tel: +91-172-2274801 Mob: +91-9814211848 Fax: +91-172-4699303

7

Electrical, Electronics and Energy Expo & Conferences Ludhiana

17 – 19 May 2013

Punjab Trade Centre, Ludhiana, India

Electrical, Electronics And Energy Expo and Conferences Ludhiana is a premium international event dealing with electrical as well as electronic components.

The event would be showcasing innovation and projecting more than 9 themes including switches and switchgear, cable, conductors and insulators, generators, motors and transformers, LED and lighting, instrumentation and automation, electrical, electronic components, batteries, renewable energy as well as power electronics.

Paramount Exhibitors Mr. Harish Arora Tel: +91-172-2274801 Mob: +91-9814211848 Fax: +91-172-4699303

India Auto Expo

23 – 26 May 2013

Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

This four day show will have experts and professionals of the industry and will offer them a platform to share and explore their experiences and ideas about the sector. The attendees will also get information about the industry and be able to discuss about the latest technological advancement More than 200 exhibitors will put their products on display and help people to experience the new development..

Vijay Shanthi Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd Tel: +(91)-(44)-45556060

4

5

8

9

India International 23 – 25 May 2013 Home Textile Exhibition

Palace Ground Bengaluru, India

India International Home Textile Exhibition is a platform for the leading suppliers and buyers who plan to target the domestic as well as international markets.

SS Textile Media Pvt Limited Event Manager Tel: +91-80-25544711 Mob: +91-9845446570 Fax: +91-80-25541841

10

Roof India

24 - 26 May 2013

Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) Mumbai, India

Roof India brings together more than 150 exhibitors from the roofing and allied products industries of India and abroad. It is the largest event of its kind in Asia and is endorsed by well-known national and international associations.

It will host a number of seminars and conferences to disseminate necessary information and will exhibit products and services like the Structural Steel, Steel Framing Machinery, Roll Forming Roof Machinery, Space frames, Tensile Fabric Architecture, Green Roofs Technology, Roof Waterproofing and other new equipment and technologies

International Trade & Exhibitions India Pvt. Ltd Event Manager Tel: +91-44-30744444 Fax: +91-44-30744445

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BACE EXPO ( Building Architectural Construction and Engineering Trade Show Kochi)

24 – 26 May 2013

Marine Drive grounds, Cochin, Kerela, India

ACE Expo Kochi will attract more than 70 exhibitors and 3000 visitors from building and construction sector to share the platform with the industrial stalwarts and discuss about the latest tools and technologies used in construction and building industry. Electrical engineers, architects, civil contractors, fabricators and government officials will participate in this show and try to build strategic alliances.

Ask Trade & Exhibitions Private limited Tel: +(91)-(44)43856156/43856157 Fax: +(91)-(44)-24864135

|60| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

EXHIBITION

DATE

VENUE

EVENT PROFILE

CONTACT PERSON

1

Shanghai International Central Kitchen Equipment’s & Technology Exhibition

05 – 07 May 2013

Intex Shanghai Shanghai, China

In this international expo all kinds of kitchen equipment and accessories and latest and advanced fast food equipment, baking equipment and refrigeration equipment will be displayed. It will prove to be beneficial for the large restaurant enterprises and chains to improve and enhance their knowledge.

Shanghai Golden Commercial Exhibition Co. limited Event Manager Tel: +86-21-64396190 Fax: +86-21-50131761

2

China Keqiao International Textile Expo

06 – 08 May 2013

China Textile City International Convention & Exhibition Center Shaoxing,China

China (Keqiao) International Textiles Fabrics & Accessories is a landmark textile market and world famous enterprises Cooperation that aims at Internationalization of Brand specialization rule, with support from the township of textile of Shaoxing county.

Shanghai Gehua Exhibition Service Co. Limited Mr. Du Jieli Tel: +86-575-84135583 Fax: +86-575-84112271

3

China (Shanghai) International technology Fair

08 – 11 May 2013

Intex Shanghai

This event will introduce advance technologies and application and provide an excellent opportunity to the exhibitors to showcase their products and services. Technologies used in environment protection, food safety management and services for promoting investment and talent development will also be displayed.

Worldwide Exhibitions Service Co. limited Event Manager Tel: +86-21-32224777 Fax: +86-21-32224770

4

China international Municipal Equipment Expo

09 – 11 May 2013

China Import & Export Fair Pazhou Complex Guangzhou, China

China International Municipal Equipment Expo is a premier exhibition for municipal building and construction industry in China. The event will provide a platform to meet professionals from the related industries.

China Municipal Engineering Association Ms. Vicky cai Tel: +86-20-28966618

5

Guangzhou International Exhibition for Steel Constructions and Metal Building Materials

09 – 11 May 2013

China Import & Export Fair Pazhou Complex Guangzhou,China

The exhibition is organized by Guangzhou Grandeur Exhibition Services Co., Ltd and will focus on building materials, mainly steel and metal. It is a great opportunity for construction companies, architects and developers to get acquainted with world class technology.

Guangzhou Grandeur Exhibition Service Co. Ltd Mr. Adrian Chan Tel: +86-20-28945348

6

China (Shanghai) International synthetic Leather Expo

13 – 15 May 2013

Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Center Shanghai, China

The 3rd International Synthetic Leather Expo aims at bringing an enormous development in the synthetic leather industry. The exhibitors have designed new technology aided equipment and materials for the professionals.

Visitors from China, Italy, Korea, Japan, Thailand, USA, UK, Taiwan, Germany, France, Canada, Austria and Turkey will be coming to this event.

China Plastics Processing Industry Association Event Manager Tel: +86-10-51672380 Fax: +86-10-51672287

7

China International Scientific Instrument & Laboratory Equipment Exhibition

15 – 17 May 2013

China International Exhibition Center Beijing, China

The 11th CISILE (CISILE 2013) with a total floor area of more than 25,000m2 will exhibit newly developed analytical and testing instrumentation, optical instrumentation, laboratory equipment, measuring instrumentation, specialized instrumentation and chemical reagents from all over the world.

Technical seminars and business talks will also be held.

China Instrument Manufacturers Association Mr. John Xiao Tel: +86-13-88395063 Fax: +86-10-88395130

8

Central China (Hefei) International Equipment Manufacturing Exposition

16 – 19 May 2013

Hefei Lakeside International Convention and Exhibition Center Hefei, China

This expo will provide a platform to the leading experts related to equipment manufacturing industry and provide a scope to get familiar with the latest manufacturing technologies and advanced techniques required for making this industry more advanced.

China Machinery Industry Federation Mr. Shen Lijun Tel: +86-371-66619431 Fax: +86-371-66619430

9

China Shanghai International Footwear and leather Goods Exhibition

23 – 25 May 2013

Shanghai Exhibition Center Shanghai, China

This business to business event will facilitate the shoes and leather goods industry of the national and international level. Business experts will help in exploring unique ways of merging traditional and trendy retail model and e commerce of footwear and leather goods industry. This show aims at enhancing trade information exchange and global network in the field of market distribution.

Messe Duesseldorf Shanghai Co. limited Ms. Amy Li Tel: +86-21-61698300 Fax: +86-21-61698301

10

China International Ceramics Industry Exhibition

29 May – 01 June

China Import & Export Fair Pazhou Complex Guangzhou, China

Ceramics China will be concerned with the ceramic industry and showcase materials, machinery and tools. The event will open up trade opportunities and lead to cooperation between Chinese and Italian companies

Unifair Exhibitions Service Co. Ltd Mr. Bonnie CHAN Tel: +86-20-83276369

June 2013  India-China Chronicle |61|

MISSING PIECES

I

It is time

was excited to know that Sobha Renaissance Information Technology (SRIT) of India had entered into a joint venture ( JV) with Yunnan Sunpa Image Tel Tech Co. Ltd (Sunpa) in China to form a new entity called Sunpa Sobha Software (China) Ltd. Headquartered in Kunming, Sunpa Sobha Software (China) Ltd. will have operating branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. This is the first JV between India and China in Healthcare ICT. During Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India last year, his first stop was not the political capital New Delhi but the ICT hub Bangalore. Addressing a crowd of 4,000 ICT professionals, the Premier shared his vision of promoting a new era in Sino-Indian cooperation. “You are number one in software. We are number three in hardware,” he said. “If we put these together, we will be the world’s number one in both.” It is not difficult to gauge the impact if giant neighbours of Asia seek to combine each other’s reciprocal strengths in ICT. The example of Sunpa Sobha Software (China) Ltd. should go a long way in fulfilling this vision.

According to a recent Forrester report titled “How India, China Redefines the Tech World Order”, over the next five years markets in India and China, will account for nearly 40% of all personal computers (PCs) and a significant share of all mobile telephones sold worldwide. Production sectors in both the countries stand to gain enormously from this potential growth. Chinese businesses have been slower in establishing bases in India. The most significant investment so far has come from Huawei & ZTE, both members of India China Economic & Cultural Council (ICEC), who are seeking to take advantage of India’s software talent, and have thus established a research-and-development (R&D) institute in Bangalore. While in India both the production and consumption of consumer electronics are still relatively low, the country’s vast population and rising middle class make it a hugely important potential market. At the same time Indian IT companies like NIIT, Aptech, Infosys, AIIT, Tata Info Tech (TCS) also have an active presence in China. The need of the hour is for SMEs of Indian ICT sector and Chinese ICT sector to set up bases in each other’s countries. They should not only look at each other as markets but also as R&D centres.

Innovation in ICT is another arena where India & China can work together. In 2010, Chinese companies have filed a record 313,854 patents making China the second largest patent filer in the world right after the US with 326,945 patents.

Similarly, the Indian government has also set up the National Innovation Council to discuss, analyse and help implement strategies for inclusive innovation in India and prepare a Roadmap for Innovation 2010-2020.

|64| India-China Chronicle  June 2013

In such an optimistic situation, India and China can rapidly evolve into ICT innovation superpowers with active support of western companies who benefit from their rise as they deepen their presence in both the giant Asian markets. In a pessimistic situation India and China may fail to realise their ICT innovation potential due to restrictive domestic policies, lack of easy access to venture capital, and a culture averse to risk. This can lead to a scenario where Indian and Chinese firms will compete head to head against the backdrop of protectionist government policies that will restrict market access in their respective countries.

In the coming decade, Indian and Chinese ICT companies will thus end up competing with their western rivals not only in their respective home markets but also in other emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America. India and China need to invest significantly to upgrade their countries’ IT innovation infrastructure in order to motivate western MNCs to shift their strategic R&D activities to both these countries.

For instance, China needs to urgently improve its intellectual property regime. India has done better in this area.

The hardware & software approach thus stretches from the economic to the political sphere. To merge these two sides would clearly be a very potent combination for a new world order. Yet, if this has to occur, India’s soft power with its focus on services, the free flow of information, strong civil society and resilient democracy must acquire the discipline, focus and determination to implement the pro-growth policies that have allowed China to boom. While across the border, China’s traditionally rigid authoritarianism must soften enough to allow for the innovation, creativity and flexibility that the next stage of development requires.

Just as the first India-China joint venture (SP Chemicals, China and India’s Bhoruka Industries) has been established in a third country Australia, for oilseed crushing and in New South Wales for an edible oil refining plant, several Indian & Chinese ICT companies can also establish their JV in other countries (besides India & China), if they can understand their strength and act with wisdom. Otherwise they will both suffer in their competition with each other. The choice is theirs to make.

Jagat Shah

The writer is Chairman, India China Economic & Cultural Council (ICEC), Gujarat

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