NEW DELHI, 31 Aug: Asserting that India has a “special China problem” which is over and above the world’s “general China problem,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the border and the state of relations with the country call for investments from there to be scrutinised.
Jaishankar said that if people are complaining of trade deficit with China and “we are too,” it is because decades ago, “we consciously overlooked the nature of Chinese production and the advantages which they enjoyed in a system where they got a level playing field with all the advantages they brought to bed.”
“China in many ways is a unique problem because it is a unique polity, it is a unique economy. Unless one tries to grasp that uniqueness and understand it, the judgements, the conclusions and the policy prescriptions flowing out of it can be problematic,” he said at the ET World Leaders Forum here during a session titled ‘New India’s Risks, Reforms and Responsibilities’.
“There is a general China problem. We are not the only country in the world which is having a debate about China. Go to Europe, and ask them what is among their major economic or national security debates today. It is about China. Look at the United States (of America). It is obsessed with China, and rightly so in many ways,” Jaishankar said.
“India has a China problem… a special China problem that is over and above the world’s general China problem,” Jaishankar said.
“When we look at trade with China, investments with China, exchanges of various kinds with China – if you neglect to take into account that this is a very different country with a very different way of working, I think your basics start to go off track,” he said.
“Once you understand that because there is a general problem with China as well as our own situation, all of you know we have a very difficult situation at the border for the last four years. I think the sensible response to it is to take the precautions that a country like India is taking,” the minister said.
It has never been the government’s position that it should not be having investments with China or doing business with China, he stressed.
“On the investments issue, it is common sense that investments from China would be scrutinised, I think the border and state of relations between India and China call for it,” Jaishankar said. (PTI)
