Beijing: Revolutionary changes could take place in Asia if China and India forge closer ties overcoming mistrust, the Chinese state media said on Thursday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his three-day visit to the country.
"Anyone with some geopolitical knowledge understands what revolutionary changes would happen to the political and economic landscape in Asia if China and India could join hands to forge ahead," an article in the state-run Global Times said.
"But people are also aware that there seems always to be a lack of mutual trust between the dragon and the elephant," the article said.
Noting that China is the world's largest textile exporter followed by India, it said the ranking implies where the Sino-Indian relationship stands and unveils one of the reasons for "the lack of trust: There is more competition than complementarity".
"As the global supply chain has been largely formed today, the lack of economic complementarity between China and India directly leads to a zero-sum game. In other words, one side moving up on the supply chain will likely squeeze the domain of the other," the article said.
It also talked about unsustainable factors in the trade structure of China and India.
"To tackle them, the two countries must devise and expand the complementarity of their industries," it said.
After talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Xi'an, Modi will arrive in Beijing and meet Premier Li Keqiang tomorrow.
On the third day of his visit, he would go to Shanghai where he would address the Chinese CEOs besides attending a business get-together and address the Indian community in China.
"Some scholars have said that complementarity can be enhanced if China invests more in India's infrastructure. However, this may prove the reverse since better transportation by rail and road will cause more concerns for India about the flooding of Chinese commodities," the article said.
"Besides, it will likely get Chinese enterprises tangled into India's perplexing land system, which may produce unexpected troubles," it said.
"The key lies in more industrial coordination. China can make well-planned and targeted industrial transfers in accordance with the development and investment ability of its enterprises and set up production bases in India to make use of its cheaper labour force," it added.
China can also invest more in training selected Indian workers, which can be carried out by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that has started operations, the article said.
Generally workforce training programmes of this kind can easily obtain support from international institutions, it said.
"The two sides can also 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. Mergers and acquisitions as well as cooperation should be promoted in the advantageous industries of both sides such as chemical industry and oil refining," it said.
"In the long run, only with enhanced complementary 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," the article noted.
Another article in state-run China Daily said, "Modi's visit to China, during which he will hold talks with Chinese leaders on a wide range of issues, is expected to facilitate the further opening up of India's market to Chinese enterprises and investments."
"Increased investments by Chinese enterprises in India and the sales of their India-made products back to China will help narrow the trade imbalance and strengthen bilateral trade and economic ties," it said.
"Modi attaches importance to the study of the 'China model', especially China's experience in inward foreign investment. As chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, Modi visited China four times to study its development model. For the purpose, he visited not only developed Guangdong province and Shanghai, but also relatively less-developed Sichuan province," it said.
Also, there is huge potential for Sino-Indian cooperation in infrastructure development and power generation, it said.
As big energy consumers, the two countries should deepen their cooperation in new energy, such as wind power and solar power, while exploring ways to work together in the traditional energy sector, the article said.
"China's advanced and competitive high-speed rail technologies are another area of cooperation with India. There is huge scope for bilateral cooperation in the service sector, too -- from banking, securities and insurance to telecommunications and postal services," it said.
