India and China in Comparative Perspective- Emerging Asian and Global Powers[1]
Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt[2]
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to entangle the comparative political economic relations between India and China by first exploring some theoretical ideas and then attempting to outline the bilateral and strategic foreign policy ties where unresolved (border) issues still haunt the relationship at the same time as there seems to be a convergence in development models; the intention is then to discuss the intertwined geopolitical and geo-economic foreign policy alignments in the global context where both countries share similar interests when it comes to opposing the United States and European Union in climate change policy, world trade and to a certain extent in security and energy matters. However disagreement persists on unresolved problems in terms of attracting FDI and other economic issues such as resources and energy. When it comes to the regional Asia settings, the global alignment and foreign policy convergence appears to be replaced by a much more competitive relation in strategic terms and the two entities act more as rivals for regional hegemony than as potential allies. As a tentative conclusion to the paper, a discussion of possible perspectives is provided by pointing to the soft versus hard power diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
Critical Political Economy and the study of foreign policy
Critical political economy (CPE) is a dynamic perspective on the interplay between geo-political and geo-economic priorities in foreign policy. This approach recognizes a certain degree of nation state diversity, but equally insists that the focus of mainstream neo-realist and neo-liberal theories on national distinctiveness is ultimately misleading in that these established theories lose sight of essential similarities in national models of regulation that are substantially shaped by the external structural imperatives of capitalist accumulation (Radice 1999, 2000). Moreover, the diversity of forms taken by various states conceals a generalized shift away from the Keynesian or other interventionist or regulative models with alleged national/domestic rather than international/competitive orientations.
CPE goes beyond the perspective of the orthodoxies of neo-realism, neo-liberalism and some structural theories like world-system theory in which “historical change is assumed to follow a predetermined path regardless of historical context and human agency; with the result that theoretical argument dominates and displaces the complexity of history” (Amoore et al. 2000: 61). In this sense, CPE sees social change as a dynamic and historical process and as a continuing creation of new forms and asks how existing social or world orders came into being; how norms, values, institutions, or social practices have emerged, and are perpetually contested and subjected to change. In this way, CPE rests on historical dialectics trying to discern not only the past but with a continual process of historical change and with exploring the potential for alternative forms of state and world order (Cox 1981).
The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989 spelled the end of the Cold War and thereby the dominance of politics in command turned into economics in command. An important post-1989 effect was the shift from the primacy of military power to a greater role for economic power in shaping global geopolitics. Economic structural change has become the epitomization of globalization and it challenges “deeply embedded socio-cultural and political structures in critical ways that cannot be ignored, provoking dynamic responses of promotion, accommodation, and resistance” (Cerny 1999: 190). The classical interplay and dynamics between exercise of ‘political authority’, security issues and ‘the distribution of wealth and production’ cannot be analyzed as exclusive domains but at the present stage of history it is manifested that geo-economics has a dominant position in international relations.
No continent benefited more than Asia, as has been manifested in its dramatic economic rise, the speed and scale of which has no parallel in world history. It may be that the United States is engaged in a number of wars in Asia and the Middle East but it also seems to be losing in the areas of finance, trade and competition and in its attempt to impose Western ‘good governance’ and human rights.
The concept of geo-economics thus came into prominence after the end of the Cold War and it suggests interconnectivity but also unevenness of the economic and commercial opportunities, broader political and international relations, and a blurring of the boundaries of the state to pursue its strategic interests, including through military capabilities. This concept is rooted in the growing importance of economic factors in international relations and in a wish to dig deeper than neo-realism in order to provide an understanding of the nature and sources of power.
The CPE approach does not essentialize the state as a pre-constituted entity or a ‘black box’ of “national interests” interacting within anarchical international relations. Rather, CPE seeks to understand ‘forms of states’ as ‘state/society complex’ and asks how the prevailing order has come about and how it is changing. It is the interplay of particular configurations of contending social forces and alliances, including attempts at integration of a variety of class interests that defines “national interests” and characterizes inherent contradictions in the historical structure. We have to explore the boundaries of the state in its current conjunctures, its historical dynamic and the process of social change (Cox 1981; Strange 1996). In this way, we seek an understanding of the underlying and prevailing tensions between geo-politics and geo-economics in foreign policy. It is important to ask “who defines national interest” and who has the power to change it?
It is quite obvious then that India’s and China’s strategy of increasing presence in the global economy is actually the strategy of the dominant social groups, alliances, and class interests within these countries. Geo-economics emphasizes the importance of integrating China’s and India’s economic diplomacy in its multi-faceted relations with different countries and regions in the context of a rapidly changing world order. The essential question then is of the viability of the ability of the capitalist class to gather social consensus for achieving its ambition of greater global reach and whether this will happen despite the interests of the peasantry and the poor masses in rural and urban areas. The question is also whether it is possible to establish a social consensus in India and China regarding the expansion and drive towards a more aggressive foreign policy to become world players and whether that entails a fundamental shift away from pre-existing norms and values.
It is power itself which is becoming more diffuse, diffracted through an increasingly complex, prismatic structure of socio-economic forces and levels of governance. The result is a hollowing out of the state even if it maintains the monopoly over the means of violence over a given territory (Cerny 1999) and this gives space to a plethora of actors and institutions – not least financial capital - capable of influencing foreign policy and social change in Asia and the world. Transnational issues including climate change, terrorism, cyber-warfare, pandemics, rush to secure energy and resource supplies, and difficulties in sustaining multilateral focus in trade and on economic issues through the completion of the Doha Round. All open up the foreign policy field and would, ideally speaking, denote a myriad of actors and influences from formal organizations such as transnational corporations to advocacy networks and think tanks ‘epistemic communities’ (networks of individuals and/or organizations based on authoritative claims to consensual knowledge). In the end, this blurring of the levels of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘non-intervention’ sanctioned by socio-political conflicts – internal and external to the state – concerns the classic problem in international political economy: ‘Who gets what, when, where, and how’.
The monumental changes in the global economy helped promote not only an economic boom in Asia, but also led to an eastward movement of global power and influence, signaled by Asia’s ascent to the world system and the possible emergence of a new multi-polar order. Global power shifts are now being triggered not by military triumphs or geopolitical realignments but by one factor unique to our contemporary world — rapid economic growth.
The CPE approach to foreign policy has a normative commitment—seeking to analyze phenomena through empirical evidence with an explicit theoretical purpose—and focused on the actual interplay of domestic and international agents and structures. Foreign policy decisions are made by agency but always within a set of structural constraints. Critical accounts of foreign policy pursue a holistic view of politics and avoid the pitfall of seeing politics as only involving governments and state actors. It is furthermore necessary to understand the constitutive and purposive nature of knowledge and questioning whether they serve particular interests as Cox (1981) remarks: “Theory is always for someone and for some purpose.” Finally,CPE leaves room for alternative ideas and visions and includes a developmental and socio-economic perspective in foreign policy. Policymakers are constrained by societal contexts, but equally they do make decisions and are able to establish elaborate critique and policies against the current (Williams 2005; Hay 2002). This type of approach constitutes a more holistic and open ‘state/society complex’ conceptualization including other relational interests, private, corporate, military, and civil society which can potentially impact foreign policy outcomes (Cox 1987; Sen 2010). For instance, energy resources beyond borders may be accessed by trade, respectively by conquest, domination and changing property rights and in this way markets are not institutionally separated in international relations from states and the distribution of military capability. This is neatly illustrated partly in India but in particular in China where there is strategic political decision taken by Beijing “to integrate China into the global political economy. During this process, they have allowed Chinese sovereignty, in the economic sphere at least, to become ‘perforated’, and thus increasing the number of actors in the policy spheres” (Schmidt 2008: 22). This can also be seen in the pragmatic approach India has taken towards Myanmar and other non-democratic countries where commercial and geo-economic interests take precedence over ideology and idealism about human rights and democracy.
When it comes to the question about foreign policy in India and China these considerations lead to a number of inter-linked issues of strategic importance. For instance, what are the links between energy security (oil, gas and water), trade and FDI flows in relation to more traditional issues of military security, encirclement and containment? What explains the fact that both countries share mutual interests in a number of global policy areas while the same areas retain a degree of rivalry and competition at the regional level? What is India’s reaction to China having the hands on leadership role when it comes to economic investment and respect for sovereignty?
Sino-India relations and foreign policy in comparative perspective
China and India share a largely reactive relationship despite a long history of growing interdependence and brief occasional encounters. Neither of the two emerging economies has developed a grand strategy towards the other. Two observers describe the state of affairs as “an unshakeable and largely unprofitable preoccupation with the past on the Indian side, and an equally intense preoccupation with domestic consolidation on the Chinese side, has left the relationship under-tended” (Malone and Mukherjee 2010: 137).
Nevertheless, the relation between Asia’s two great powers can best be characterized as one of global cooperation on transnational issues especially vis-à-vis the “West”, geostrategic rivalry at the regional level in the form of growing commercial exchange and in some cases bilateral competition. These contradictory processes are complicated by some degree of asymmetry between them as China does not appear to feel threatened by India while the Indian political class seems to project a sense of insecurity in coming to grip with China’s rise in the world system (Bajaj 2011).
While both nations’ emergence in the world system is uncontestable they still suffer from inherent weakness. With some of the world’s highest levels of inequality and weak prospects for reconciling growth with equity in both countries make their ascendancy fragile and filled with uncertainties. Seen in this light, it is indeed questionable whether they will be able to reconfigure the international order with their accumulating might (Jha 2010). In China the government’s admission of growing problems caused by uneven and unequal development has been reflected in the call for a "socialist countryside" and more recently a gradual approach to equitable and balanced growth with several new social policies in the pipeline. Similar problems are also acknowledged by the Indian government where the Eleventh Five Year Plan aims at "inclusive growth” which has been followed by an ambitious social-protection scheme called National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).
The world’s two most populous countries China and India, accounting for roughly 40% of the 6.5bn plus people on Planet Earth, are not merely the two fastest growing major economies in the world at present, but are among the few countries that have continued to expand at a time when the economies of most countries have contracted. They are defined by contrasting models of development, regime form, and competition not only for capital, resources and markets, but also for legitimacy in the global arena. As far as their interaction with the external world is concerned, they both believe in a “rigid defense of the Westphalian system of national sovereignty” and a certain degree of nationalism (Saul 2005: 207). The question is, however, whether there are cracks in the system as new signs show a shift away from traditional position such as supremacy of sovereignty, non-interventionism, Nehruvian non-alignment and autonomy of policy-makers in foreign policy.
Geo-economically, China's economy is roughly three and a half times bigger than that of India. GDP measured in US dollars in 2008 for the two countries stood at $4.2 trillion and $1.2 trillion respectively. China is now India’s trading partner number-one with bilateral trade having increased from under $3bllion in 2000 to almost $52 billion in 2008, and it is growing at almost three times the rate of US-China trade (Hallinan 2010).
That China has become a global player is evident. Its growing influence has been prevalent in climate negotiations and in its response to the aftermath of the “Great Recession”, as it poured multi-billions of dollars into domestic recovery projects, thereby avoiding a stagnating economy. It also spent many tens of billions more on raw materials and new investments in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia helping to speed up recovery (Klare 2010).
Driven by the need for raw materials, natural resources, energy and markets, China is using its economic leverage to acquire assets, secure long-term contracts and boost its political standing through loans and aid to countries around the world. China’s outbound investment for mergers and acquisition in 2009 reached $46 billion, five times the figure of $9.6 billion in 2005.
The global financial crisis which had its origin in failed market transactions in the United States in 2008 (Schmidt 2010) created unease in China about its enormous surplus and currency reserves. One idea with far reaching consequences for its foreign policy was the proposal of a Chinese “Marshall Plan” for Asia, Africa and Latin America. It was subsequently criticized by a number of observers for its narrow focus on exclusively selling more goods to emerging markets as a way to reduce China’s overcapacity problems. Interestingly the critique was not so much against the plan but an attempt to increase attention to the need of jobs for locals and raising living standards internally. Otherwise the plan might fail asserted the argument.
This is but one sign that China’s foreign policy is changing, and not entirely by choice. Since 1996, the New Security Concept (NSC) has put emphasis on soft power diplomacy through dialogue and cooperation (Schmidt 2008). It is a concept established on the assumption of common interests and seen as conducive to social progress. Its focus lies on ideas of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, and coordination. The NSC aims to surmount differences, to increase mutual trust through dialogue, to resolve disputes through negotiations, and to promote cooperation through security. However, an opposing critical school in Beijing calls for a more bold and assertive foreign policy matching China’s status as a world power (Xuetong 2011).
Changes in Foreign Policy
The challenge for China is its policy of non-intervention. This prevents Beijing from taking positions on pertinent issues threatening China’s national interests and legitimacy. The examples are many like those involving authoritarian regimes, rights and vested interests. The strategies of “peaceful rise” and non-intervention have so far enabled China to avoid entanglement in complex foreign internal political issues. However, this is considered to be a handicap to the projection of power by international relations theories as “it also limits the country’s policy options in trying to exert its weight in the emerging world” (Simpfendorfer 2009). As a matter of fact, it is exactly this principle of non-infringement on the sovereignty of other countries which seems to be changing in China’s new foreign policy (Xuetong 2011).