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Journalism of Courage
As he lands in Beijing next weekend, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would countenance a China vastly different from the one his predecessors knew. It is a China that is at once conscious of and comfortable with its position as the world8217;s newest great power. Beijing8217;s warm hospitality is unlikely to hide the chilling sense of China8217;s rise 8212; the single most important geo-political fact of our time.
As he launched the Chinese economic miracle in December 1978, Deng Xiaoping had some simple advice on foreign policy 8212; 8220;keep a cool head, maintain a low profile and never take the lead.8221;
The current generation of Chinese leadership, basking in the glory of nearly three decades of miraculous economic growth, is looking beyond Deng8217;s advice and asserting itself much like the great powers of the past.
Over the last two decades, India8217;s China policy was largely focused on bilateral issues 8212; resolving the boundary dispute and normalising relations. Despite some progress on boundary management, the resolution of the underlying dispute has remained elusive. Meanwhile, bilateral cooperation 8212; especially in trade 8212; has blossomed, with China all set to emerge as India8217;s largest trading partner.
What has changed, however, is the international balance of power now marked by the rapid rise of China and the somewhat slower emergence of India. The altered international context demands a restructuring of the agenda of Sino-Indian relations.
PM8217;s agenda
With no room for sentimentalism in China8217;s hard headed world-view, India too is free to explore a pragmatic agenda of engagement, without having to dress it up in ideological rhetoric.
The good news for Manmohan Singh is that China is fully aware of India8217;s growing power potential on the world stage and the new strategic options it has begun to develop with the US and Japan. The bad news, however, is that China is as equally conscious of the UPA government8217;s internal weakness and its reluctance to take bold foreign policy decisions. The PM will have to convince his Chinese interlocutors that despite the current confusing domestic debate on foreign policy, India has the will to relentlessly pursue its national interest.
Although the boundary issue has been pushed onto the backburner during the PM8217;s visit to Beijing, it is necessary for Manmohan Singh to reaffirm the importance of an early resolution of the boundary dispute. He must unambiguously convey to the Chinese leaders that any expectations of further territorial concessions from India are entirely unrealistic.
It is equally important for the PM to demonstrate India8217;s commitment to a new relationship with China by removing many of the current obstacles in New Delhi 8212; including ridiculous visa procedures for Chinese visitors and businessmen. India must stop seeing China as one big black box, develop a differentiated view of its internal structures, and nurture a broad range of Chinese constituencies by giving them a stake in cooperation with India.
Nuclear partnership
In Beijing, the PM will have to respond to the Chinese desire to put some meat on the bones of the proclaimed strategic partnership between the two countries. As the regional and global interests of China and India grow alongwith their economic weight, there will be many new areas cooperation as well as conflict.
It is no longer enough to say that Asia is large enough to accommodate the simultaneous rise of China and India. The whole world knows about the real and putative Sino-Indian rivalry in South and Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and in the search for equity oil around the world.
The prime minister8217;s visit is an opportunity to lay down a credible framework for expanding the areas of regional and global cooperation and minimising the potential for future tensions between the two Asian giants.
The Chinese leaders, in turn, could use the PM8217;s visit to dispel the widespread impression that Beijing is opposed to India8217;s effort to regain access to international nuclear energy cooperation.
By ending its nuclear ambiguity towards New Delhi and explicitly agreeing to bilateral civilian atomic energy cooperation, Beijing can, in one stroke, undermine the long accumulated popular Indian mistrust of China.
The writer is professor, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohanntu.edu.sg
