India is faring as well in terms of GDP growth and has an open economy too. Why then is China the world's darling?
Barun Roy / New Delhi Jul 15, 2010, 00:57 IST
Have we ever wondered why China is always in the world’s limelight and India is not? Why do others pay more attention to what China does and says than to what we do and say? It can’t only be its sizzling GDP growth, since we aren’t doing badly either. It isn’t also its open economy, because we are open, too. Why is it, then, that the world inevitably regards China, not India, as Asia’s defining face?
No matter where I looked for an explanation, I always came back to three unavoidable conclusions. First, China is always in change, always trying to excel itself, always trying out new ideas. To an outside observer, this is the mark of a truly dynamic nation, a nation seriously engaged with its future, a dragon awake in its full glory, and that impresses. By comparison, India is but a sluggish elephant, though dignified in its gait.
Secondly, China has espoused the world in a way India will never be able to do because of India’s kinky mental make-up that thinks dependence on foreigners is a slur on its intelligence. If foreign designers, architects, sculptors, and town planners can produce a better, brighter, and more modern image, the Chinese won’t hesitate to engage them. Naturally, China is the world’s darling, despite Tiananmen Square; India is not, despite Bhopal.
Thirdly, China is capable of dreaming big and acting bigger, which makes it a nation of achievers. And when the achievements are bold and monumental, how can the world not pay attention? Here are a few of China’s new-age icons that are as impressive as the Great Wall or the terracotta warriors of Xian:
The Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project that spans the mighty Yangtze River, has cost $26 billion to build, and will produce up to 22,500 MW of electricity to serve an important industrial belt that includes Shanghai. Its deep, 600-km long reservoir has enough storage to reduce the frequency of devastating downstream floods from once in ten years to once in a hundred. Because of the dam, it’s now possible for even 10,000-tonne freighters to navigate up to 2,250 km inland from the East China Sea. The world may debate the wisdom of this project but can’t ignore its boldness.
The Golmud-Lhasa Railway that has ended Tibet’s isolation from the rest of China and presents to the world a stunning engineering feat that many thought could not be achieved. The 1,142-km link between Golmud in Qinghai province and the Tibetan capital took five years and $4.2 billion to build and crosses the Tanggula Pass 5,072 metres above sea level to become the world’s highest railway track. More than 80 per cent of the line has been laid at altitudes of 4,000 metres or more, and a stretch of 550 km is laid on permafrost requiring difficult track stabilisation measures.
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the world’s longest (36 km) sea-going bridge, is another impressive example of China’s will and daring. The “S” shaped, cable-stayed bridge, with six lanes in both directions and costing $1.7 billion, stretches across Hangzhou Bay to cut travel distance between Shanghai and Ningbo, the country’s second largest port, by 120 km. While this kind of saving may not be worthwhile for others, it’s critical for growth-obsessed China, where development is a race against time.
The Shanghai Maglev railway, connecting downtown Shanghai with Pudong International Airport, is the world’s first fully-commercial magnetic levitation railway. Travelling at up to 431 km an hour and covering a distance of 30 km in seven minutes and 20 seconds sharp, the $1.2 billion railway not only symbolises China as a nation in a hurry but has also set off a new craze for high-speed railway travel worldwide.
The Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3, hailed as the biggest man-made structure in the world in terms of area covered (986,000 sq. m.) when it opened in 2008 and now the second-largest airport terminal after Dubai. Designed like a stretched-out dragon by a consortium of foreign architectural firms led by UK’s Foster & Partners and built entirely from scratch at a cost of $3.5 billion, the new terminal offered a grand message of welcome to foreign visitors as they trooped in for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
To this very impressive list of achievements, one could, of course, add many more. The Olympic stadiums, for one thing, or Highway 312, China’s Mother Road, that crosses the country east to west from Shanghai to Khorgas on the border with Kazakhstan 4,967 km away. And surely there is the massive south-to-north water diversion project, likely to cost a whopping $62 billion and now in the full swing of construction.
Against such daring displays of vision, what have we got to show to get noticed? “Honour” killings in Delhi and church burnings in Orissa.
I agree that China has a few things to boast about but it has even more similarity with India than you have mentioned above. Its in terms of social insecurity like riot between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese or the riots in Lhasa. Chinese have no political freedom and the problem of environmental degradation is burgeoning in China. Seems you have forgot to mention these. Here, I am not justifying any of the above mentioned incidents which took place in India. But one need to be more partisan, careful and sensitive while making comparison and talking about things, especially his/her motherland.
Posted by: Gulshan Madhur
July 19 , 2010, 15:12 IST
China is light year ahead of India not only in terms of innovations but also in terms of riots, huge amount of public unrest and environmental pollution. Seems you have not got my point, I completely disagree with writers last line and accept all what he has written above. India can surely learn a lot from China but at the same time it can teach China many things.
So telling that India has nothing to compare with China's progress is wrong and that the only thing India can boast about is riots is completely wrong and offensive. I think the author need to do a reality check.
Most of the Chinese goods are inferior in quality which are not durable and reliable. India is way ahead of China in terms of software experts and most scientist working in NASA are Indian and not Chinese.
Posted by: Reality
July 17 , 2010, 16:18 IST
To label China short on innovations is simply delusional. Just read this article "Solar Home of the Future, With EV in the Garage, Makes Debut" (http://sunpluggers.com/news/solar-home-of-future-makes-debut-in-california-0707). When it comes to real world practical life impacting science and technology. China is light years ahead of India. In several fronts, China is actually leading the world. This article is a good example of my point.
China is no more than a cheap labor source controlled by communist masters who are in turn interested only in earning money but NO HUMAN RIGHTS. In the long run China is bound to fail due to suppressive policies.
Tony ,
To get an idea aboutt innovation in business , pls read the article by CK Pralad and R A Mashalkar ( originally from HBR) on rediff.com
The Chinese companies that you mentioned are mostly seen as proxies of the govt , not private sector companies. How many businessmen from mainland China ( not Hong Kong) are known.
Dysfunctional democracy- your opinion i would say a messy but working one.
Yes they have companies that deliver good products , but few as innovative as Bharti or even Tata motors (ie making of the Nano).
Acknowledging China's growth story is truely justified.But there is no way u can compare these two nations,for they are poles apart in evrything ,be it cultural background,political institutions,education n all.Its too easy to get mesmerized by wat China has achieved infra-structure wise.But the pain tat its citizens has to bear due to its hard-hitting government policies is far more than wat we Indians enjoy,thanks to our democracy. I can safely say tat an average Indian is more happy than its Chineese counterpart. Atleast, we dont get massacred when we choose to protest against the government(refer to Tiananmen Square).
Agreed that china has all those man made marvels you quote.. but at what cost? china's success has been due to a political system in which the leader's vision or views are implemented without any tolerance to dissent. for all the money the chinese people earn, they do not have any rights/freedom/choice. In fact, if India were to be a authoritarian system like china, you would have been serving 10 years in jail for criticising the government/country. And please look around china now, you will find labour unrest, strikes suicides in many places. You might have read that Avatar movie was banned in china as the government was scared people might identify themselves with Pandorans whose land humans try to take over by hook or crook. Atleast in India we have voices which raise up and the government is forces to listen.
One shares the columnist's anguish because there is nothing China has done in the last thirty years, starting with making shoes, toys and garments, which India could not have done equally well. No matter, we will get there in another twenty years.
Where India lags China is in the quality of governance, which is unfortunate because the threat of losing the next election should actually bring out the best in any government.
We also have achievements but it may not be as visible as the big infra projects of China.
We are a functional democracy. We have institutions like IITs. We have business houses which China can only dream about!!We have started innovating in buiness processes and products quite a bit.
India cannot follow China's way and vice versa!
The foreign vs domestic expertise is a non issue- China simply does not have the same amount of skill sets - it needs to import them. The Indian education system has produced good talent and thus our dependence on foreighners is low.
Do you know what China is hiding behind all those achivements ? They do not have a free press so you do not!! Here any small negative incident is hyped up and the whole cuntry gets a bad name.
And finally , articles like these complete the story a full circle.Never sell the good things but do all kinds of faulty analysis to say that we are inferior!! Of course the world will agree. What do you expect?
Posted by: Tony
July 15 , 2010, 13:22 IST
I wouldn't call India a functional democracy. A democracy, yes, but definiely not functional, more dysfunctional and function. And these innovative business processes that India like to harp about. What are they? China, as illutrated by Huawei, ZTE, Geely, Konka, Alibaba, Haier, BYD etc. is not exactly short on innovation.
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