China, India, US hold lessons in the value of globalization
This column is not about politics, headline-grabbers or tweet addicts. It’s about how some of the biggest stories could be beyond the headlines.
It’s about how ordinary people are turning increasingly pragmatic, outgrowing politics and politicians’ spin-laced narratives that pervade mainstream media and sometimes infect social media discourse.
At the end of the day, it seems, all that people in this globalized world really care about is their livelihood, progress, prosperity and happiness.
Toward that end, they are willing to shrug off the nationalistic fervor that is strategically manufactured from time to time. Instead, people seem intent on making the most of opportunities hidden in certain situations.
Even as the China-US trade tariff tensions continue, glad tidings now mark Sino-Indian relations at the people-to-people level. It’s as if two lovers, after a long, tumultuous, doubt- and breakup-ridden courtship, finally figure that a win-win approach would be in their mutual interest and hence take the long-term plunge (and then can’t stop having one kid after another, like Prince William and Kate Middleton).
As an Indian, I’d like to imagine that recent developments are laden with socioeconomic portent, which could have implications for the entire world. After all, the two most populous nations, which figure in the world’s top six economies and are also geographically close, are pregnant with possibilities.
Just last year, the rancor that now marks the current narrative of China-US trade relations characterized SinoIndian ties. It seems to be in the distant past now, however, thanks to the efforts of ordinary people of both nations, particularly those from the sociocultural and business spheres, who rose above popular narratives to embrace a win-win philosophy.
Witness these vignettes: Last month, India unveiled the world’s tallest statue in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 182-meter-high “Statue of Unity”, a tribute to Sardar Patel, India’s independence leader and the country’s first interior minister, was built by Chinese workers from the State-owned enterprises that bagged the construction contract.
The Fangzhou Matches Factory in Anyang, Henan province, innovates by using Indian spices in its products that produce a pleasant fragrance when burned.
Chinese investors are funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into Indian startups, hoping to create unicorns that can transform lives in a billion-plus nation, as they did in China.
The southern India parents of a teen table tennis player spend up to 30,000 yuan ($4,300) per month on his training at an academy near Beijing. His Chinese coach is a former champion, and the academy’s hostel chef goes out of his way to prepare customized Indian meals for the youngster, who thinks China is the best country on the planet.
Chinese women are learning Indian classical dances and performing at events in China. Young Chinese are learning regional Indian languages, and short videos of their songs go viral, thanks to Chinese apps that target Indian audiences with custom content. Yoga, spicy Indian food and movies are now the rage in China, just as Chinese food and green tea are smash hits in India.
Indian commodities such as tea, rice and sugar are making steady inroads into the China market, as both sides seek to give the $100 billion bilateral trade a semblance of balance.
China’s Guizhou province relies on India’s software prowess in its bid to emerge as the world’s big data and cloud-computing capital. The northeastern states of India are deepening economic ties with China across the border in a low-profile manner. China’s pharmaceutical ingredient suppliers’ biggest buyers are Indian drug companies.
All these examples illustrate one inescapable truth: In the globalized world, even superpowers and aspiring superpowers should play their cards well, and keep people’s interests above politics. People will find ways to prosper, succeed and thrive, no matter what. Policies and unilateral moves that thwart people’s aspirations could boomerang on their makers.
Contact the writer at siva@chinadaily.com.cn