A Pucca Hut Amidst Residential Complexes Outside Beijing (Pix By Author)


It was probably on one of Shenzhen’s landscaped sea facing promenades, driving back into city from the factories of one of China’s largest computer hardware makers that it dawned on me that we are never going to be like China, not in my generation for sure.

First, to use an analogy, comparing ourselves with China is really akin to running a 100 metre race against Jamaican Asafa Powell (9.77 seconds world record) when the last time you ran competitively was in school or something close to that. It’s a complete waste of time because you will perhaps cover ten metres when Powell will be hitting the finish line.

Going on to speculate whether Mr Powell injected steroids to ensure is win is a further waste of time. Instead, India should look for a different track and field event, like a relay race or even shooting, where we have a ghost of a chance. And yes, we should stop trying to speak about their warts in the same breadth as their success, it only lulls us to further complacency.

Don't Draw Conclusions, Yet

That’s because China, as this writer has concluded in his limited intelligence, is Work In Progress. And in any project that is WIP, you can’t begin drawing conclusions like it was a done deal. At least the Indians don’t have any business doing so.

Of course, China has limited or no religious freedom, you can’t rave and rant against the government like you can on prime time television in India, there are restrictions on who goes where (Houko permits), you can’t pile on to a city like Shenzhen and Shanghai unless you have a job and of course, there is a good chance that if your little house in a big city is coming in the way of `development’, it will be razed down, though you will be given an alternative, possibly 20 km away.

And yet, everywhere I went, I met Chinese who were going about their business coldly and methodically and Indians who while admiring all that the Chinese have achieved, were quick to point out that all this came at a price, that development was only confined to urban China and that no development was worth the price that was being paid. And that seems to be a problem more than a smart observation.

Why Infrastructure ?

“Would you prefer the China model where you get all the glitzy infrastructure but can get thrown into jail for free speech or the Indian model where you have free speech, freedom but not the development ?” asked a recently posted senior Indian public sector banker over dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown Shanghai. According to him, there was no mix or match, it was either, or.

One wonders. To ask some plan Joe questions. Since most of the amazement centers around infrastructure, why is China building these highways ? Surely, It can’t be because some party members in Beijing want to take summer trips to their villages in the less developed north west China.

Note that China now has over 1.9 million kilometers of highways (we have 58,000 km) and over 30,000 km of expressways. There is a $241 billion plan to connect all provincial cities, large cities with population over 500,000 and small cities over 200,000 with expressways in 30 years. Even today China claims only 99.6 per cent connectivity.

Sunil Mishra, Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) man in Shanghai says he has visited 17 provinces (in 23) and over 30 cities in China in the last year or so. His visits are largely to understand, on behalf of Indian business, where the new opportunities lie. He thinks Western China is where Indian businesses should be heading now.


Spreading Prosperity


More importantly, Mishra says, the remotest of towns and cities he’s visited, right upto a place called Khasgar (autonomous region of Xinjiang) in central Asia, bordering Kazhakhastan, the roads are as good as any in prosperous east China. “I was amazed when I visited Urumqi (the capital), not only was there an excellent road network but also five five-star hotels.” This writer struggled for an analogy but would guess its perhaps like saying Guwahati or Kohima had the same road network as Delhi.

So, if China has built and continues to build roads into the hinterland, it wants prosperity to spread and further economic integration. At a point of time, its unlikely to have achieved the final result, whatever that might be, but its better than what it was before. Or, as an Indian bureaucrat in China told me, given the country’s track record of peasant revolts, they have little choice but to reach out to the hinterland quickly. Presumably, Indian politicians live with similar fears, vis-à-vis the ballot box, or do they not ?

Question Number Two. Is the average Chinese better or worse off today ? What do you think ? Okay, do they cower in fear because they might be dragged to Tinamen Square and shot in public view for saying the wrong thing. Not quite. The Chinese we met are affable, open to describing conditions as they are, the processes that drive them, occasionaly admitting to corruption but seem quite happy with their lives.

Dissent Is Tough

Open dissent is not encouraged. There is a definite restraint in expressing views, no one was willing to debate what would happen if the one-child norm was violated, “We can’t do it,” is all at least two young Chinese said. And perhaps that’s where the problem is. Equally, they are not the most comfortable discussing such views with foreigners, which is what we are to them. Indians rise most honourably to such occasions, but the Chinese don’t.



Young Chinese Soldiers On The Great Wall: "From Here, We Are Off To Wal Mart !"


On the famed Shanghai waterfront (The Bund) with its breathtaking view of Pudong’s massive skyscrapers on one bank and classic British heritage stone buildings on the other, young couples hold hands and walk around, absorbed in conversation and each other and in some cases, doing a few more intimate things. This did not look like a communist state where the state would come after you for moral turpitude.

China has a model of growth. It has a communist system which did not deliver economically and is doing so now. That’s to the nation’s credit. I live in a democracy where the roads outside my house are in constant disrepair, because some corporator does not care or is eating money. The model to my mind has worked, in fits and starts. I love my country, I live here, and I am happy I can protest all I want, though fat good it has done me. So, I would rather not point to the warts in China but see the learnings I can take back.

Skyscrapers & Huts

Driving out of Beijing city, in the middle of large clumps of residential complexes, stood small rows of pucca huts (see picture), an indication that prosperity is relative. In other parts, a little away from Shanghai, you can see even thatched houses which look a little unusual considering the quality of road and the kind of vehicles on them. Clearly, there are disparities. And that’s because its WIP, not the final product.

If you want to feel good about India, the place to visit is Beijing’s sprawling Zhong Gun Cun Science & Technology Park. The big names like Oracle and Lenovo are already here and so are mid size software outsourcing firms like Beyondsoft. A clear appreciation for India’s IT success hung in the air. Founder & CEO Wang Bin admitted China had a long way to go, particularly since the people and the skills in that magnitude were not just not there.

But then, he wanted to learn from India. And wanted to explore tie-ups. It did not strike me that he would go home and tell his wife, I met these Indians, they are smart, passionate and they’ve cracked the software business. But oh, they have 350 million people below poverty line, so its okay.

This article appeared in the Hindustan Times, Bombay on 23 November. The writer was part of a CII Young Indians delegation to China and this is his third and also the longest visit to that country.

2 Comments

Anonymous said…
love ur blog govind.
Anonymous said…
Hi Govind,

About catching up with the Chinese, they are already reaching the “Middle Ages” of their development and we are still living in the teenage world of “Experimental” development.

The learning from China is that as a country it has not followed any ONE-SET-DEVELOPMENT-MODEL.

It has taken what has suited it from all across the board. Therefore, the striking contrasts that are so "right-in-your-face"

In doing so the Chinese have actually gone about identifying what is right for them and what is not in context of where they want to be in time to come.

Sure you would argue that may be these decisions are made by a few and lived by many and the sanctity of such a decision making process is questionable. But at the same time that is where communism has worked for the "many chinas" within China.

I feel that if India actually gets all her priorities right, it might be a beginning. And these priorities can not come from making an entire city like another one (Mumbai-Shanghai) but they will come from a detailed introspection on where is it that Mumbai can go and how do we get there.

Therefore, it is not about democracy or communism but it is about setting your priorities straight. And post 57 years of Independence, it is time India grows out of her adolescence and makes some mature, adult decisions for herself. It’s Time To Grow Up.
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