--By Rup Narayan Das, Senior Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Lok Sabha Secretariat, India

Abstract

It gives me great pleasure to participate in this conference on "China's Dream" and share my understanding of India's perspective on this. What is China's dream? One can find answer to that if we can understand what does the Chinese Dream means to us. To me, simply put, China is a civilizational continuum with its very rich tapestry of cultural, spiritual and scientific heritage and enterprise. It evokes awe and reverence. It has a fascinating past, a very dynamic present and a very promising future. How is the Chinese Dream articulated by the Chinese people and the Chinese leadership? Although the streaks of Chinese Dream can be discerned from various sources, one can also derive it from President Xi Jinping's exhortation of "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation", which he articulated in late November last year at the National Museum of China. Chinese Dream is the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is a determination to improve the collective livelihood of the people.

The concept is both aspirational and ideational.The Chinese Dream is not only the dream of a nation; it is also the dream of its capable, hardworking, talented and intelligent people not only to attain a reasonably standard of living with peace and dignity and to realize their latent potential and their talent. As you know, talent will not grow in a vacuum. Like a sapling, it needs a conducive environment and nourishment to grow and flourish. You need land to do farming, and capital to start a business. Chinese Dream is and should be all about that. It should not only facilitate and ensure a reasonably good standard of living, but also give them opportunity to rise in the ladder of life, to achieve and excel; to demonstrate to the world that they are no less than anybody else not only in terms of materiel prosperity, business entrepreneurship, statecraft, diplomacy, but also in arts and culture and intellectual pursuits. But while pursuing all these aspiration, they should also take into account the sensitivity and concerns of other countries and their peoples. This is very important and I suppose this very objective of this conference. This is more important particularly at a time when there is some concerns about China's rise. Entire world is now looking at China with some concern and perhaps with more hope. I say more with hope in the backdrop of China's positive and proactive role in mitigating the contagion effects of world financial crises and earlier the Asian Financial crises.

There are concerns because as you all know very well, when a major power rises as has been the case in the past, it has invariably led to clash and collusion affecting peace, stability and development.These are the remnants of cold war, which inevitably comes to our mind even if we try to wipe them out from our memory. Why the mistake of the past need not and may not be replicated is because the nature of world politics has some what changed ever since the end of Cold War. Not only that the geo-politics has shifted from Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific, but also the very idioms and vocabulary of world politics has changed considerably, if not absolutely. Now it is economy in command rather than politic. We are now living in an globalized world of mutual interdependence, where there is free movement of goods and services. China has been, if I may say so the most important driver of this paradigm shifts.

India has a great stake in China- its development and challenges that it faces and the reverse is equally true. In a world which is increasingly becoming mutually interdependent, India and China being world's two most populated countries and most dynamic economy have much to gain through cooperative partnership than maintaining an adversarial relationship.

Recently, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh while addressing the officers of the Party school said that Sino-Indian relations are unique. Well, every country's relationship with other country is unique in its own right. How one does describe Sino-Indian relations? Is it adversarial or friendly? I have been of the view that Sino-Indian relations are resilient. There are challenges, but the two countries have always overcome them learning to what I wrote in China Daily, in my article - "Learning to live together". The leaders of the two countries have the maturity and the wisdom to address problems between the two countries.

The moot questions that I would like to address in this enterprise of Chinese dream are primarily two: First is, how China can accommodate the interest of other countries, while pursuing the very objectives of Chinese dream? Will it lead to clash or collision of interest of other countries with that of China's? Secondly, how India can fit in and benefit from this enterprise? A thoughtful integration of the regional economy and the world economy for mutually beneficial relations for the overall prosperity of the people at large will help mitigate nagging doubts and anxieties.

India and China must forge the complementarities of their economies and leverage their relative advantages, which require coordination and synchronization at macro level. Greater political trust is also required. There arean untapped opportunities, which needs to be harnessed. For example, when India is in need of Foreign Direct Investment, China can invest in India's infrastructural development like highways and roads, modernization of its railways. India can seek Chinese expertise and investment in the introduction of High Speed Trains, and also in augmenting agricultural production. All these can be achieved through hard work, not only by our leaders, but also by the diplomats, bureaucrats, corporate houses, journalists and also by public intellectuals like us. Our leaders can set the agenda, but it is diplomats and bureaucrats, who will have to execute and implement them. We as scholars have to give right kind of inputs. For example how do we rectify the current trade imbalance between India and China, we need to work hard to identify areas for mutual cooperation. Simply signing of Memorandum of Understandings are not enough. More importantly they need to be carried forward. But these things are not impossible given genuine political will and sincerity of purpose. Collectively we can create a harmonious society for a win-win situation.

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