Underwhelming Jinping

Even as the Chinese President left Indian shores there was a sense of unease that nothing y has really changed between India and China in all these decades Trade yes Suspicion oh yes Distrust most certainly Same page definitely not Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the Chinese first couple on a guided tour of Sabarmati Ashram and the Narmada Riverfront with disarming simplicity of purpose President Xi Jinping also made the right moves donned a Khadi jacket smiled at times and seemed to enjoy the meal And yet his army was marching into the Indian territory even while all this bonhomie was onChinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting on a swing along the Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad PicPTIClearly the lsquodragonrsquo and lsquoelephantrsquo in the same room causes too much discomfort to entrenched interest groups There is a sense of unease in dealing with China that India cannot shake away President Xi said ldquoBefore the border issue is eventually solved we should jointly manage and control our disputes in a proper way and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border regions We should not let the border issue affect our bilateral relationsrdquo That sounds eerily like IndiaPakistan statementshellipwhere you manage bordershellip for decades on end not necessarily resolve issuesWhen you have a disputed border it never really can be pushed on the back burner It overshadows every aspect of the relationship Itrsquos the lsquobut thenrsquo in any dealing However China has mastered the art of territorial aggression as part of its diplomatic policy China has territorial disputes with over a dozen countries almost all its neighbours on land and water yet without going to war it has lsquomanagedrsquo these disputes And without doubt emerged as the dominant force in AsiaDuring President Xirsquos visit if China wanted to give the impression that it was not warlike that it did not have imperialistic aspirations then it did little to dispel this notion China has bully power and it unashamedly uses it Without being subtle Here is a country that has blocked Google Twitter Facebook Instagram Wikipedia and Whatsapp It has no democracy no freedom of the press It has very little in common with us even though we share a boundaryBut it has the one thing that we so desperately want Explosive economic development Many of us who have the good fortune to travel abroad especially to SouthEast Asian countries cannot but feel a twinge of envy when we see clean offices and safe public spaces airconditioning that works strong streams of water from taps bright lights efficient public transport system And they have defeated poverty Banished into the countryside in some cases and in others completely removed There is a growthbased legitimacy to everything in such countries most specifically the absence of such things like liberty We have democracy and take great pride in it And we have liberty In some places For some peopleQuite naturally the prime focus of the new Indian government is to get the economy back on track If India has to achieve a high growth rate and make it possible for every Indian to have lsquoroti kapda makaanrsquo then we have to learn to do business with those who we might not trust might not like and maybe who compete unfairly with usWe need not choose between Japan and China We donrsquot need to choose between US China and Russia Actually correction we donrsquot have the luxury to choose We have to work with Pakistan The rest should be a cakewalkAs per industry analysts we need a trillion dollars plus in the remaining half of this decade to build the infrastructure for growth A major chunk of this will have to come as investment from China and JapanChina will set up two industrial parks in India but itrsquos unlikely that it will open up its markets for Indian goods though it says it will The Export Import Bank of China signed an agreement with the State Bank of India to extend a 18 billion line of credit for projects including those for importing Chinese products See what they did there Similarly telecom giants have got their elbows in nowThere is trade and investment rivers and boundaries rails and ports China is here on invitation The incursions are another thing There they will be evicted Hundreds of soldiers donrsquot enter into another country to build a road without permission accidentally This was deliberate and provocative They donrsquot expect us to back down They also expect us to conduct business as usual in other spheres And we should do exactly that There will be probably more flash points on the Line of Actual Control LAC in the coming months because the soldiers have not gone back We live in interesting times as the Chinese curse saysSmita Prakash is Editor News at Asian News International You can follow her on twitter smitaprakash