China and India, the most populous countries in the world, are now in the media spotlight because of their enviable economic development. To some extent, however, the role and future position of the two Asian giants have been misread, and their influence exaggerated.
　　According to a widespread estimation now afoot in the West, China and India will grow into the next superpowers sometime in the second half of this century. This sort of excessive praise is as destructive as a fierce rhetorical attack. That prediction is dubious, many may say. There is no visible way the two nations can earn the crown of modern super empires. People’s suspicion sounds reasonable. However, the essential point is our descendants ought to live in a brave new world without superpowers, in an era that belongs to all nations.
　　I’m now venturing to predict that the United States is the last superpower of the modern world. The term superpower is a spin-off of the Cold War, which faded away more than a decade ago. But superpower, as a phenomenon of world politics, survives, and is unlikely to be evanescent in the near future. This planet doesn’t need a new superpower. The best way to end that phenomenon is to make the present superpower heirless. So it is wise and farsighted for China and India not to hanker for superpower status or any similar position.
　　If India and China cherished the dream of being almighty powers that are didactic, arrogant and aggressive, it would make a watching world very wary. Nations worldwide have been striving for, in one way or another, a peaceful and prosperous world for all its members. That future scenario is attainable. The fewer mistakes we make, the sooner it will be materialized. The old pattern of power rise and decline should be discarded, as it no longer fits the present world situation.
　　India and China have a sacred and unprecedented historic mission. That is, they must blaze a new path of development that is different from that of Germany (Prussia) in the 18th century, Great Britain in the 19th century and the United States in the 20th century. They are obligated to create a new pattern of development unparalleled in history.
　　The new approach, which I call the China-India pattern, is first of all peaceful, without recourse to gunboat policies and any form of forceful threats, as the world has seen in past centuries. As the first step and for setting an example, the two Asian nations should settle their border disputes through negotiations. Moreover, they need to convert their friendly neighboring policies into deeds and reality. They might even show a magnanimous attitude toward provocative words and deeds from their neighbors and other countries, to show their adherence to a peaceful road.
　　The China-India pattern should have an open-to-all tinge, with focus on cooperation and common wealth. It might be harmless for the two countries, which boast the cradles of the world’s two major civilizations, to play down their historical contributions to humanity. And it’s obviously necessary for the two to learn in a humble way from all other nations, whether they are big or small, regardless of their relations in the past.
　　Cooperation between India and China must be emphasized and their competition underplayed. People are fed up with the clichés that the world is watching a suburb match between India the elephant and China the dragon, or a wrestling match between two Asian “King Kongs,” or a tortoise-hare race. That kind of description simply misinterprets the great events happening on both sides of the Himalayas. Indian politician Jawaharlal Nehru was right by saying 50 years ago that “a strong and united China and a strong and united India must come close to each other.”
　　What preoccupies China and India is economic development, and the Chinese and Indians may have reason to preen on what they’ve achieved so far. However, we--Chinese and Indians--must understand and always keep in mind that our economies are huge not because our per-capita wealth is enormous, but because we have a combined population of 2.3 billion, roughly 35 percent of the world’s total. Our national economic muscle may be strong, but our individual strength is relatively trivial. That’s the reality that renders us realistic.
　　By saying realistic I mean we’ll be poor countries for a long time. I really don’t think that future Chinese, or Indians, will build a unique economic empire that can provide all their citizens with living standards second to none. Not only that, industrial and scientific creativity, which an advanced nation is supposed to have, is quite weak in our developing world and is unlikely to change fundamentally in a short time. And please remember this: We live in a natural context with a striking lack of resources. So ours must be different from the road of the previous powers.
　　The key point here is to always keep sober when we pursue our goal, which, as far as I understand, is to allow all Chinese and Indians to lead a relatively decent life and help rid other poor peoples of poverty. That mission, a tough task indeed, will keep us busy for centuries. Our goal has nothing to do with being the world’s dominant force. It is unrealistic, anachronistic and even wrong for the two Asian giants to try to create a so-called “China-India century,” or to replace the West as the dominant force of the world. All we want is a planet managed and dominated by all nations.
　　Don’t take “world’s factory” and “world’s office” too seriously. Against our colossal population, what we’ve reaped is negligible. We still have a long way to go before we claim that we are major contributors to humankind’s progress in the third millennium. It is no accident that our two countries had been left behind by the West in the past, and that we will long be labeled as developing countries. We should carefully handle the immense vigor unleashed by our people and prevent it from fueling a tendency toward the pride and the pomp of nationalism. In short, it’s not the time to celebrate. Being short on rhetoric and long on practice is what we need now, and probably forever.

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