India has a special China problem: Jaishankar calls for investments from there be scrutinised

India's unique China problem requires careful scrutiny of investments due to border tensions and complex relations.

Asserting that India has a "special China problem" which is over and above the world's "general China problem", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday (August 31, 2024) the border and the state of relations with the country call for investments from there be scrutinised.

Mr. Jaishankar said that if people are complaining of trade deficit with China and "we are too", it is because decades ago, "we consciously overlooked the nature of Chinese production and the advantages which they enjoyed in a system where they got a level playing field with all the advantages they brought to bed".

"China in many ways is a unique problem because it is a unique polity, it is a unique economy. Unless one tries to grasp that uniqueness and understand it, the judgements, the conclusions and the policy prescriptions flowing out of it can be problematic," he said at the ET World Leaders Forum here during a session titled 'New India's Risks, Reforms and Responsibilities'.

"There is a general China problem. We are not the only country in the world which is having a debate about China. Go to Europe, and ask them what is among their major economic or national security debates today. It is about China. Look at the United States [of America]. It is obsessed with China, and rightly so in many ways," Jaishankar said.

So, the fact is that it is not only India which has a China problem, he said.

"India has a China problem... a special China problem that is over and above the world's general China problem," Mr. Jaishankar said.

"When we look at trade with China, investments with China, exchanges of various kinds with China. If you neglect to take into account that this is a very different country with a very different way of working, I think your basics start to go off track," he said.