Whose Crisis is it: India’s or China’s?
Sandeep Anand
Research Scholar, JNU, New Delhi
e-mail: sandeepanand.jnu@gmail.com

The 14th ASEAN Summit got cancelled on 11 April 2009 because of the political turmoil in the host country Thailand. With the cancellation of the meeting India’s hopes to finalise Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN got delayed for the umpteenth time since 2003, the year when India-ASEAN Framework Agreement for Comprehensive Economic Cooperation was signed.

While India lost the opportunity to sign FTA and waits for yet another opportune moment to seal the agreement, China did not allow the failed meet to have an adverse effect on its future course of action vis-à-vis its southern neighbours. The annual Boao Forum for Asia, which was held from 17 to 19 April in Hainan, China, did the trick for it. The Forum is mainly committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries even closer to their developmental goals.

For Beijing, the timing of the conference was perfect as it came on the heels of the failed ASEAN summit. Even the theme “Asia: Managing beyond Crisis” was immaculately crafted to suit the present-day situation in Asia. Leaders from eleven countries including the Prime Ministers of Myanmar and Vietnam were also present. At the meet China announced a US$10 billion investment cooperation fund to help promote infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia along with US$15 billion dollars in credit to the countries of the region mainly aimed at placing them on a better footing in dealing with the current economic crisis. China also used the platform to question the viability of the US Dollar as the international currency of choice while making a case for the Yuan as a regional currency.

The Forum clearly sends two unmistakable signals to the world. First, China by helping its southern neighbours in the crisis wants to strengthen its reputation as a responsible world power. Moreover, the move to help them is a also a part of its “win-win” strategy mainly aimed at allaying fears of China emanating mainly from history as well as uncertainty about China’s future behavior. China so far, through its soft power diplomacy, has tried its best not to let Southeast Asia become uneasy over its growth and its intentions.

Second, China has shown intentions of rewriting the rules of the multilateral forums or at least of creating some multilateral forums where the rules of the game are made by it. This, China thinks, is a consistent step en route to becoming a world power. For example, it is increasingly evident that China wants to have a greater say in International Monetary Fund (IMF) and that it leads the Boao Forum and has not hesitated to criticize US from its platform.

There is no doubt that China has made the most out of this present day economic crisis. It has clearly used it to its benefit in raising its profile in world affairs. Nothing could best summarize this rising profile of China in this crisis than the fact that Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of States on her maiden overseas visit asked China to continue buying the US treasury bonds so that financial crisis did not deepen. American dependence on China in the crisis certainly portends well for China’s aspirations of being a great power.

Meanwhile, where does India stand? It is true that India and China have not been so badly affected by the economic downturn but while China has been able to capitalize on this moment, India, on the other hand, seems to be happy with finding a greater role in Obama’s AfPak policy perhaps unmindful of the fact that this policy has the potential of keeping India bracketed in South Asian affairs which could undermine India’s aspirations of becoming a larger stakeholder in world affairs. India’s South Asian neighbours are in turmoil be it Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, or to a lesser degree Bangladesh. Neither has India’s South Asia policy been very successful nor has India done a China in its neighbourhood in this economic downturn. If India wants to be a power to reckon with at the world level India should vigorously try to integrate itself with Southeast Asia apart from being part of South Asia. This will not only help India to play a constructive role in the region by balancing China to an extent but also give an expanded playground to exercise its influence.

The center of power in world affairs has over the last decade or so been slowly gravitating towards China. The economic crisis has just hastened the process. Any delay in reading the trends can mean that India will find itself unnecessarily wasting its energy and resources for a thankless job. The clock is ticking.

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