Chinese Dream is closely tied to the dream of India

From September 11th to the 19th, 2014, China’s President Xi Jinping will attend the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization opening in Dushanbe and pay state visits to Tajikistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and India. As the last stop of President Xi’s visit to Central and South Asia, the visit to India draws special attention. This is President Xi’s first visit to India since assuming office.

The promising future of trade relations between China and India

Prior to President Xi’s visit to India, ZEE, an India TV station broadcast some interesting news: On Sept 2nd, 2014, Hita Raman, the Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry, during her visit to China, experienced China’s high-speed railway service. She took the 120 km-long Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railway and arrived in Tianjing in only 30 minutes. The following news is even more interesting. Eight days after Hita Raman’s personal experience of the high-speed railway, on Sept 10th, China’s Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. signed a deal worth 300 million yuan -equivalent to almost 50 million US dollars- to provide vehicles for Navi Mumbai’s Line 1 subway.

The two pieces of news are no coincidence. They embody the great potential for economic and trade cooperation between China and India. As natural partners, China is the second largest trading partner of India while India has become the largest trading partner of China in South Asia. In recent years, the two way trade between China and India skyrocketed from 2.9 billion US dollars in 2000 to 65 billion US dollars in 2013. At the same time, the personnel exchanges between the two countries increased by almost twofold. Direct airlines between China and India increased from zero to 45 per week now. This is only a small part of massive economic and trade cooperation between China and India. Such cooperation is a great treasure waiting to be tapped into or a big volcano accumulating energy and ready to erupt.

INTERVIEW

Shubhashis Gangopadhyay

Director, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Shiv Nadar University, India

if two of these countries come together because you know, we do make up a large part of the global population, so if we can leverage that population and do something which is, as I said, beneficial for both of us. And I think there is a huge opportunity and scope.if we cooperate with each other, and economic cooperation is the basis of such cooperation, if we cooperate with each other, you know both of us are going to benefit.

Close ties between Chinese and Indian Dreams

On July 14th, 2014, in his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in Brazil, President Xi Jinping said that as the two biggest developing countries and emerging markets, both China and India are in a great historical process of realizing national rejuvenation; thus, what the two countries value most is peace and development, and the ideals and goals of the two countries are linked closely.

INTERVIEW

Rupa Narayan Das

Senior Fellow,Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, India

China has been successful to a great extending in the improving the standards of people, in lifting people from poverty and ensuring them with good life, now there is occasion when China is trying sincerely to give a new life a better life, you call it a China’s Dream, the Rejuvenating China, it is good. Maybe we also want that in India people have good lives, standards of living, people will have access to good livelihood, education, health-care and opportunities

It is the common aspiration of 2.5 billion Chinese and Indian people to share their dreams, strategies, markets and to join hands to achieve more. There are close ties between the Chinese and Indian dreams.

INTERVIEW

Jagannath P. Panda

Research Fellow & Centre Coordinator, East Asia, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, India

When we are talking about Chinese dream, we are talking about the huge population’s dream. When we are talking about India’s dream, we are talking about the huge population’s dream. So therefore, when we are talking about the Chinese dream, we have to appreciate India’s dream also. And where does that dream lies? That dream actually lies in people’s living standard, in people’s day-to-day life, and people’s aspirations.

China and India speak in one voice and the world will hear

When China and India speak in one voice and the world will listen. In terms of bilateral, regional and international relations, China and India are long-term strategic cooperation partners rather than rivals.

INTERVIEW

Jagannath P. Panda

Research Fellow & Centre Coordinator, East Asia, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, India

What we have seen is that Chinese military modernization and maritime focus has been robust. That in the last ten years, the military modernization process has gone up. That’s not a fact to be worry actually; that’s a fact to appreciate. Because every country has their national development plan; every country wants to build a strong military facility. So it goes with China.

In terms of the bilateral relations, both Chinese and Indian people believe in seeking cooperation and win-win solutions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India used a vivid metaphor in describing the bilateral relations: “the two nations are actually one mind with two bodies”.