The following is based on a translation of a report on a Chinese news site:

A report on news.sohu.com expresses China‘s concern that India, the largest country in South Asia, still fails to show any clear interest in China’s Silk Road economic Belt and 21st century maritime Silk Road, despite China’s repeated invitations.

The projects, which China refers to as the One Belt, One Road project, is being implemented in an all-round manner in parts of Asia to the west of China, where most countries have joined China in building roads, railways, pipelines and other infrastructure.

Due to India’s vital importance for China’s One Belt, One Road project, Xu Yuanrong and Xu Boya of Chinese think tank CBN Research have jointly written an article titled “How Great Is the Chinese-Indian ‘One Belt, One Road’ Cooperation Potential” on the prospects of India joining the project.

The article has been published quite extensively in important Chinese media.

The article describes the importance of the project to China and India’s indispensable roles and potential in joining the project from the perspectives of economy, politics, geopolitics and China’s rise.

China says it hopes to establish an economic area with participant countries through the construction of ports, maritime infrastructures, etc. for export of capital, removal of its manufacturing industries to participant countries to utilise the cheap labour there for maintenance of China’s export competitive edge, to intensify international cooperation in production capacity, to realise its economic restructure and to stimulate domestic economic growth.

That will provide investment and industrial development opportunities for India.

The report says that the project will establish and improve the transport connections by road, rail and sea among participating countries. That is very important for not only China but also India for trade development with India’s surrounding countries.

The establishment of the India-Bangladesh-Myanmar-China economic corridor with high-speed rail link between the four countries will benefit both India and China, especially India if China moves its labour-intensive industries to India.

The rail link will provide an alternative route for cheap Indian goods to China to avoid potential problems in the sea route through the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea.

The report says that politically, China will get allies and friends through mutual economic benefits and remove surrounding countries’ doubt and concerns about China’s rise and the threat from China’s rise that the US and Japanese media are busily exaggerating.

In geopolitics, the maritime Silk Road will enable China to develop in the Indian Ocean and remove surrounding countries’ concerns about China’s presence there.

However, that is quite a sensitive issue for India. China has to make great efforts to build mutual trust with India and ease the tension between India and Pakistan through economic cooperation between the two countries.

The report concludes that China is giving prominence to its grand strategy of bringing concrete and real benefits to the people in both China and India.

Source: news.sohu.com “How Great Is Chinese-Indian ‘One Belt, One Road’ Cooperation Potential” (summary by Chan Kai Yee based on the article in Chinese)

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