'China, India can complement each other while competing'

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his three-day official visit to China, a paper that had earlier carried a critical commentary on India and had charged Modi "with playing little tricks over border disputes and security issues", on Thursday took a conciliatory stand to say that the two countries can gain much if they pursue a position complementary towards each other, shedding the distrust they share mutually.

"Anyone with some geopolitical knowledge understands what revolutionary changes would happen to the political and economic landscape in Asia if China and India can join hands to forge ahead," the Global Times said in an article titled "China and India Can Complement Each Other".

"But the people are also aware that there seems always to be a lack of mutual trust between the dragon and the elephant," said the Global Times, which is an English language newspaper of China's state-patronised People's Daily.

Yet another important paper said it was now "time for deeper China-India cooperation", even as Modi began his three-day trip from Xi'an. He is to visit Beijing and Shanghai in the next two days.

The Global Times article conceded that there were, indeed, some unsustainable factors in the trade structures of China and India, like in the case of textiles where the two countries enjoy the status of top two global exporters.

"To tackle them, the two countries must devise and expand complementarity of their industries," it said, while also spelling out some examples of how the two sides can provide more favourable conditions for each other's competitive industries.

"For instance, India can give Chinese telecommunication enterprises more access to local markets if China does likewise for India's pharmaceutical companies," it said, adding mergers and ties should be promoted in such advantageous industries as chemicals and oil refining.

The opinion piece, however, did not believe in the suggestions of some scholars that China could gain and relations can improve if it invests more in India's infrastructure.

"This may prove the reverse since better transportation by rail and road will cause more concerns for India about flooding of Chinese commodities. Besides, it will likely get Chinese enterprises tangled into India's perplexing land system, which may produce unexpected troubles," it said.

"In the long run, only with enhanced complementarity can China and India have more cooperation and less competition. With the realignment of their industries, they can ultimately create a common market of 2.6 billion people," it added.

Two days ago, the paper in a commentary by a research fellow from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, had advised Modi not to visit the "disputed border region (read Arunachal Pradesh)" and not to raise political issues in his meeting that "infringe on the consensus in bilateral ties".

There is huge potential for deepening bilateral cooperation in trade and economic fields, especially in the manufacturing sector, wrote Xu Changwen in an opinion piece in the state-run China Daily.

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives by the Chinese president too are apt for cooperation with India, especially after it adopted an "eastward-looking" strategy, it said.

"The China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which already has India as a founding member, is likely to deepen cooperation in infrastructure construction," China Daily said.