Asia | Society and Culture

Reflections on China, Lessons for India

Over the past 2 weeks I traveled to Taiwan, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The trip was ostensibly a vacation, but I met enough people in government and business - that I knew before or ran into in random bars, airports, and planes - that I managed to achieve the real purpose of the trip: establish for myself where China is and is headed, and draw a few ideas for India.

Not surprisingly, what they tell you about China’s remarkable economic development is true. The infrastructure is excellent, the skyscrapers plenty, and the shopping extravagant. Shanghai’s Pudong airport, while hardly world-class, is good, and the maglev train exceptional in avoiding the gridlock above. Through its economic success and achievement, China has, in a sense, thrown a gauntlet at “the west”, and largely done so from a position of self-confidence. For the west, there is a lesson here in how not to underestimate, or prevent the rise of the “third world”.

That success story, however, is not what should interest India. Rather, for India and other developing countries, it is China’s social achievements that should be notable. Four, in particular, struck me.

First, while almost nobody on the street spoke english, absolutely everyone was educated and literate. It is evident that China achieved a very high level of primary education decades before it achieved economic success. Second, there is a curious lack of extreme poverty. While there is, no doubt, poverty in the villages, at least in the cities it is not overwhelming - the begger on the street is the exception, rather than the rule; even in small villages (that my mother visited as a sociologist) schools were well equipped and children healthy and well fed. Third, and perhaps related, China provides a feeling of safety lacking from most developing countries. Even at night, I felt safe traveling alone around the city, as appearently did many single women. Even taxi drivers, much maligned throughout the world, were friendly and unaggressive - a pleasant change from Delhi. And finally, I noted a remarkable level of gender equality on the street. Admittedly bias does exist (e.g. the retirement age is lower for women than for men), yet, it does not exhibit itself very often. Women do many of the same jobs and do not seem to be subjected to the degrading stares they often complain of in India.

Despite its economic achievements, I am not starry eyed about China’s growth simply because it has come at a great cost to a great many people - one can barely start to imagine how many houses were razed at the altar of Shanghai’s Pudong skyline. India may yet build that skyline and embrace special economic zones - or it may reject both forms of economic organization. But it will be a choice of the people, not one forced down its throat by the governing elite - even an educated and benevolent one.

But it is in its cultural and social outlook that China beats India hands down, and where one finds the real success of the former and the failure of the later. China allows its people social freedoms they are denied in India, by creating a secure and safe environment. And it has succeeded in providing much of what a state is expected to provide - basic education, health, and a minimum standard of living.

It is fashionable to compare China and India on economic grounds, and talk of Chindia. To do so, however, is to take a limited view both of China’s achievements and failures, and India’s needs. Indeed, that is a decidedely western perspective that looks at economic issues as paramount. The real lessons for India are not how China achieved its economic growth. Rather, it is to establish what the role of the state is to be in social and national construction. China presents a counterpoint to those that reject a role for the state in social and national construction. And it shows how a leviathan can provide a level of governance that ensures people have what they need.

© 2007 The Discomfort Zone.