India and China have had close people-to-people relations for centuries. Chanakya and Sun Tzu were approximate contemporaries, a hundred years apart. India has historically excelled in relationship-building with other nations through travel, trade, and thought. The three Ts were strong glues. The Tea Horse Road carried a flourishing trade. The spread of Buddhism had a mercantile streak, as highlighted by Devdutt Pattanaik in his recent column for The New Indian Express. Another relevant article on a syncretic vision to heal our divided world was published by this newspaper earlier this month.
When a truncated India encountered a unified China in the 1950s, the frontier politics of British India opened differences. Differences have been around for eight decades, even as soft power has influenced both sides for centuries. In future, there is potential for benefit if Chanakya and Sun Tzu can collaborate through business. For two large neighbours, that is worthwhile.
My experience of China is only through business. Trade, travel, and thoughts bring people together. A young Jamsetji Tata, the founder of Tata, went for training in Shanghai around 1860. On my first visit in 2009, I learned that Avan Villa at 458, Wulumuqi North Road in Shanghai, was owned by Bejan Dadabhoy Tata, a distant uncle of JRD Tata. As a Tata Director, I visited a subsidiary called NTACO in the Jingning Industrial Economic Zone, near Nanjing, which manufactures plastic injection-moulded automotive components. I also attended the inauguration of NTACO’s second unit near Changshu in 2015. Later, a third company came up to trade in automotive components. Tata in China has annual revenues of $8 billion and employs thousands through Tata Consultancy, Jaguar Land Rover, TACO, Tata Technologies, and Tata International. A joint venture, Chery-JLR Automotive, manufactures cars in Changshu.
China claims that Tibet has been part of it since the fall of the Qing dynasty around 1911. Therefore, in 1950, China took over Tibet. The role of India in extricating the Dalai Lama from Tibet caused tension with China. In 1962, China and India fought a Himalayan war. Since then, there have been skirmishes and periodic tensions leading up to the clashes in 2021 in the Galwan Valley. For six decades now, India and China have viewed each other with suspicion. In 2007, Professor Tarun Khanna of Harvard Business School felt that the opening of the Nathu La pass in Tibet reactivated the world’s highest customs point for trade between India and China. Both nations now appear to desire longer-term ties, although the terms have yet to be developed. Their foreign ministers met in Kazan, Russia, in 2024. The meeting was reported as “a tactical thaw rather than a strategic shift away from Sino-Indian rivalry” by Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution
Over the past thirty years, despite border tensions, trade between India and China has grown from $0.25 billion in the 1990s to over $120 billion in 2024, albeit in an unbalanced manner. Between 1920 and 1940, China published twenty-seven books based on Gandhi and Gandhism. When the Government of Zanzibar and East Africa enacted the Asian Ordinance in 1906, 1,100 Chinese stood beside 8,000 Indians to protest it. At the centenary celebrations at Visva Bharati University, Tagore’s 1924 statement from his China visit was recalled by Ma Jia, chargé d’affaires of the Chinese embassy. “India has been one of China’s closest relatives, and China and India have enjoyed a time-honoured and affectionate brotherhood,” Tagore had said.
Apart from people-to-people contact, there are geographical and geopolitical factors. It is a circle around the South China Sea, encompassing China, India and some Southeast Asian nations. Ken Myers of Texas first drew this circle two decades ago, and his nom de plume, Valeriepieris, became associated with the idea. Professor Danny Quah, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Professor Riaz Shah of Hult International Business School refined it.
As per the UN World Population Prospects, an estimated 4.2 billion people live within the circle, compared to 3.8 billion outside. However, the land area accounts for only 15 percent of the planet’s total area. Imagine the density. Tightly packed people of China and India must either adjust to live peacefully or fight to extinction. The choice is obvious. Both nations are culturally strong and are aware of their cultural heritage. Both are economically marching towards regaining their past strength, albeit at different stages and with varying outcomes. China has been quiet but strong in discipline and pragmatism. India has been both noisy and strong in creativity and ideas.
Like China, India must also invest heavily in R&D to bring this opportunity to life. Consider that since 2000, China’s investment in research has increased by 18 times, reaching over $750 billion. No wonder China has become highly competent in new technologies and research. Chinese technology joint ventures in India, spanning electronics, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and artificial intelligence, are promising. This can work only if China too wants it, and policies must change in this regard. China developed rapidly by combining Western technology with Chinese manufacturing. India could combine Chinese technology with Indian manufacturing, initially producing for India but later for export.
There is a role for business leaders and government through promoting travel, thoughts, and trade. Studies by university students, tourism initiatives, joint ventures, and other endeavours, rather than just short term trades, all contribute to this effort. They are proven instruments in geopolitics. Circumstances make allies of nations.
Will it happen in the short term? Probably not. Some leaders must shift from a competitive to a collaborative mentality. The good news is there are signs that leaders are thinking along these lines. It would be desirable if India and China brought Chanakya and Sun Tzu together.
(Views are personal)
(rgopal@themindwork)
R Gopalakrishnan's latest book, Jamsedji Tata: Powerful Learnings for Corporate Success, is co-authored with Harish Bhat.