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What we need to learn from China

R Jagannathan

First impressions can be misleading. Comparisons can be odious. But having spent most of last week in China's capital Beijing, I am not going to pass up the opportunity to share my first impressions and make comparisons.

What struck me most about China and India is the similarity of our concerns. Newspapers during the second week of June were full of stories about floods killing hundreds in north-west China - just what you would expect in Indian newspapers around monsoon time.

The World Cup - despite China's poor showing - takes up four to six pages of most newspapers, just as they do in India.

Politically, substitute Tibet for Kashmir, and you can understand Chinese worries. In the second week of June, Chinese papers were playing up pictures of the Panchen Lama at a company producing Tibetan medicine in Lhasa, mentioning additionally his visit to a museum and a conference hall.

The Panchen Lama - widely considered a Chinese puppet - got a lot of space on Page 1 of China Daily, a Chinese English language newspaper I was getting at my hotel. And this on a day when the Turks thrashed China 3-0 in a World Cup match. The Chinese, it would appear, are trying to convince themselves and the world that Tibetans are gung-ho about being a part of China.

Which brings us to business. China Daily had at least one business story on the front page every day.

The business headlines last week were not dissimilar to what one would expect to see in a business daily in India these days: one day's lead story covered a big ticket corporate merger (between two auto companies on June 15); another day we had stories reflecting concern about growing imports in areas like autos, steel and consumer goods after China's entry into the World Trade Organisation; the June 11 edition carried an interview with a government spokesman on reforms in the banking system and attempts to reflate the economy by pursuing an easier monetary policy.

And then, the inevitable pork-barrel projects: a June 14 lead story talked about how the government was going to invest huge amounts on railway construction in the underdeveloped western China region. You can almost picture a Mamata Banerjee pushing these projects in China.

The similarities, however, end here. And the thing that hits you most when you read newspapers is the over-dependence on government sources for information.

This makes most newspapers almost tame by Indian standards. The concerns expressed are all 'official' concerns; the interviews with government officials are all reverential, and intended to give the impression that Chinese officials are beavering away at solving the country's problems.

Looking at Indian newspapers, one would often get the opposite impression: the country's politicians and bureaucracy are working hard to put us on the road to ruin.

Not that these impressions are completely wrong, but they do tell you one important thing: what China doesn't want to show, it tries to hide. In India, we make a hobby out of self-flagellation and washing our dirty linen in public.

But if the Chinese media always puts a positive spin on news, there is often good reason for it. One huge differentiator is the Chinese government's obsessive focus on the economy and reforms.

The Chinese know that military strength is useful, but real power comes from economic muscle; it does not flow from the barrel of the gun - as Mao taught them. Mao's thoughts have been embalmed and tucked away with him in his mausoleum near Tiananmen Square.

Having entered the WTO, the Chinese are feverishly preparing themselves for global competition.

Example: they are pushing corporate consolidation. Last week's merger headlines were precisely about this. The June 15 lead story was about First Automotive Works (one of China's top three automakers) taking up a controlling stake in Tianjin Xiali Co, which makes small cars with Toyota technology, and Huali Automobile Co Automotive.

India's auto industry consolidation is, by comparison, practically a non-event. All that has happened is the exit of Indian of foreign partners from joint ventures in India.

Thanks to the absence of party-politics and real democracy, the Chinese are using the second differentiator - a proactive approach to future challenges - to strengthen their economic power.

For example, the Chinese have invested heavily in road, railway and telecom infrastructure to make sure that they can maintain their 7-8 per cent growth rates. Beijing thus has not one or two, but five ring roads around it, making Beijing as good as any European country in terms of urban infrastructure.

As for telecom, mobile phones are ubiquitous all over the capital. From taxi drivers to hotel officials to shopkeepers and even students, all of them are mobile savvy.

The Chinese know they missed the bus on software. But there are working hard to catch up. A recent Chinese government decision involves making immigration easier for professionals in cutting-edge tech areas like IT, biotechnology, new materials and manufacturing technology and aerospace.

In software, India's prowess in English is making life difficult for Chinese programmers to make their mark on the global stage. But the Chinese are using the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a catalyst to spread the knowledge of English deep down into the population.

Quite clearly, the Chinese have identified their weaknesses and are trying to overcome them. In the ultimate analysis, that's where India could learn a real lesson from China.

All countries have their weaknesses, but great countries try to overcome them through grit and determination. India can meet the Chinese challenges once we learn this lesson and stop offering excuses for failure.

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