by A. G. NOORANI
For the last few decades, to go no further, China has been a powerhouse of ideas. There is an intellectual awakening of which little is known in India, the one country which ought to know of it, for two good reasons. The common place one is that India’s friendly relations with China are not unmixed with occasional sparring over the boundary dispute. The other, which escapes most, is that the two countries are in the same boat and can learn a lot from each other, especially on America’s drive for global hegemony.
Disagreements on some points notwithstanding, neither country accepts, or should accept, America’s leadership. “Chinese thinkers want to create a world where national governments can be masters of their own destiny rather than be subject to the whims of global capital and American foreign policy. They want investment, technology and market access from the rest of the world, but they do not want to absorb Western values. Their goal is not to cut China off but rather to allow China to engage with the world on its own terms,” Mark Leonard writes.
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