Interaction with a visiting Delegation from Fudan University, China

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A four-member delegation of Fudan University (China), led by Prof. Zhang Yi, Executive Vice Director, Fudan Development Institute (China), and comprising Prof. Sun Lijian, Prof. Shen Dingli, and Prof. Lin Minwang as members of the delegation, visited the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on 03 May 2017. The delegation interacted with members of the VIF faculty across a large spectrum of bilateral and multi-lateral issues. Amb TCA Rangachari, India’s former Ambassador to China, accompanied with other policy experts, including Amb Dinkar Srivastava, Vice Adm Raman Puri and Brig Vinod Anand, engaged the visiting delegation in a frank and candid exchange of views.

With no agenda set for the interaction prior to the delegation’s visit, discussions remained informal and general in nature. While the VIF’s panel evinced their interest in China’s political and economic reforms post 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the visiting delegation pressed the VIF’s panel for their perspectives on US-China relations and two major economic initiatives of the NDA-led government: de-monetisation and unified tax regime GST, among other issues. As part of their presentation to the VIF, the visiting Chinese delegation also urged India to join international summit on One Belt, One Road (OBOR), which Beijing planned to hold later that month.

While explaining China’s imperatives for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - a flagship project under the OBOR - the Chinese delegation stressed that Beijing had limited capacity to influence other countries’ behavior towards India, an oblique reference to Pakistan’s support for cross-border terrorism into India. The VIF’s panel, on their part, urged that China needed to be more transparent with their policy decisions, especially on geo-political matters. With bilateral relationship between China and India mired in mutual distrust and both countries viewing each other’s actions with suspicion, experts on either side stressed the importance of regular dialogues in improving bilateral relations between two rising economies and neighbours in Asia, China and India.