Know thy frenemy

Indians cannot afford to remain oblivious about China

News that the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has made it compulsory for new recruits to speak Mandarin, and the Tibetan dialect of it, highlights a key anomaly in India today. Knowledge of China — its rich cultural heritage, its political and economic institutions, even its language — is woefully inadequate. China is India’s biggest trading partner, a key rival for influence in Asia and, as the row over the frozen fastness of the Doklam plateau has indirectly accentuated again, a perpetual source of tension along the border. Beijing has adopted India’s adversary and terror-sponsor Pakistan as a client state. Since the mid-nineties, successive Indian governments have desperately sought to introduce policy that will replicate China’s economic miracle. The two countries stand on the same side on seminal global issues of the day such as climate change and seek to collaborate in building post-Cold War institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In short, no country fits the label of India’s “frenemy” better than China. 

Yet, the collective disinterest in China is striking and borders on ignorance. Each year, more Indians travel to the declining world powers of Europe and the US than to the rising superpower that lies over the Himalayas. For the average Indian, China stands for Chinese food — now so localised as to bear no relation to what is actually available in China — action movies of Jackie Chan, a Hong Kong martial arts actor, and, above all, cheap prices. For a generation of tiny sector manufacturers — lock-makers, kitchenware, producers of household bric-a-brac, idol makers, for instance — China is the country that put them out of business. The more educated upper middle class and rich may have a slightly better acquaintance with the Middle Kingdom. The thoughts of Sun Tzu, the 6th century Chinese general and strategist, remains in vogue among Indian managers. Feng Shui and Chinese tea (with its dubious weight loss benefits) are leading fads among the chatterati. Mao Tse Tung’s Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution may resonate as will Deng Xiao Peng, the architect of China’s authentic great leap, and Tiananmen Square. Some may even know of Yao Ming, the 7-foot 6-inch basketball player who has belied China’s reputation for short men. 

In truth, though, for the well-heeled Indian traveller, knowledge of Chinese culture is mostly filtered through visits to Singapore and Hong Kong. French, Spanish and German outdo Chinese as a foreign language of choice. True, the number of Chinese language institutes have increased significantly as Indian businessmen increase their relations with the world’s second-largest economy, but Mandarin courses are an option only in upscale schools. Beyond this transactional expansion, a more profound understanding of China, its history and unique and complex governing institutions — the very ones that established its global domination and almost eradicated poverty in a generation — is poor even in Indian academia and the foreign policy establishment. 

Perhaps nothing reflects this irrational disinterest than the Ministry of External Affairs’ decision to sharply cut the modest Rs 1 crore annual grant to the Institute of Chinese Studies, the leading and well-reputed think-tank that partners with Harvard University and MIT. The MEA has decided to opt for a project-by-project approach from this year reportedly because ICS had differed with the government on some issues such as its approach to the One Belt One Road initiative. This is a pity. Fostering closer cultural and academic relations would go a long way in enriching understanding and promoting more informed and optimum policy outcomes in place of the raw jingoism that colours the popular discourse — as it did during the Doklam stand-off. Knowing your enemy is time-honoured advice from Sun Tzu and Kautilya alike. In the more nuanced world of 21st century diplomacy knowing your frenemy is critical too.