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China Versus India. How To Always “Win” The Argument.

Posted in China Business

iLook China has a post up comparing China’s economic future with India’s. The post focuses on the recent Economist cover story positing that India’s economy will soon out-pace China’s. I never read that article because I find articles like that somewhat silly. Economists have trouble predicting two years out, much less ten or twenty. The problem with predictions is that they have to be based mostly on the past and though the past is one of the best predictors of the future, it is still not all that accurate.

So I thought the iLook post, “Comparing India and China’s Economic Engines,” would provide me a with a super-quick summary of the Economist cover story comparing India with China, but it did not. Instead, it puts forth an utterly absurd and panda-istic argument for why China’s economy will continue surpassing India’s into the distant future. iLook’s argument is essentially that China is working on becoming a republic and India’s existing democracy is not all that it is cracked up to be. In other words, iLook takes what he sees as China’s aspirations and assumes (without a shred of factual support or even argument) that China will very shortly fully achieve those aspirations. As for India, he takes India’s government as it is (and exaggerates its problems a bit for good measure) and assumes (again without a shred of factual support or even argument) that India will never progress even one iota.

Not fair, iLook. Not fair at all.

What do you think?

  • GWA

    I think the China Law Blog caused to much traffic to go to this site or the firewall in China does not agree with iLook either. This is an interesting debate for the future and one without a real “answer”
    Both countries are the source of massive populations so they should both be attractive to foreign companies in the future. US companies have long outsourced jobs to India because of the high level of education and knowledge of English. China is just as educated and has a stronger desire for products from the west.
    I would argue that China is more relatable for westerners than India. I was in China during the 2008 Olympics and did not hear one story about athletes getting sick let alone get sick myself. The recent Commonwealth Games in India were marked with controversy starting with facilities not being completed, athletes getting sick and animals running onto athletic fields. Forget about the inherent safety issues when traveling in India.
    China has it’s problems but has shown a willingness to adapt and accept western ideals in a variety of ways. I can not pretend to have traveled to India but was on a train recently from Tianjin to Shanghai. Young and old not one person was wearing the traditional wardrobe in China pre 1989. In India would this be the same?

  • Twofish

    I think a lot of the China versus India comparisons are non-sense. Both are very different economies and governments that both manage to work. It would be a major global disaster if growth stalls in either China and India, and whether that happens or not depends on the specific decisions that people within China or India make rather than on general governmental principles.
    Personally, I think it’s pretty remarkable and a good thing that India has managed to have a multi-party parliamentary democracy more or less work in a nation as big and diverse as it is.

  • Bill Rich

    It is never a game of “fair” when you have to please your boss. The boss will always win no matter what the facts and reasons are.

  • New Yorker
  • Falen

    Don’t forget! India will soon reaps the “demographic dividend” over China! Never mind their lack of education and the poor infrastructure, for they are issues too minor to address… Everyone just needs to accept that hundreds of millions of uneducated young people is going to launch India into some superpower economic growth.
    I think the choice of the language itself is telling.

  • Jay in China

    iLook China is a really, really silly blog and does not deserve the attention you are lavishing on it.

  • outcast

    India’s biggest problem has long been it’s massively ineffective leadership, the commonwealth games are proof of that. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

  • Pete

    India’s biggest advantage over China is that its economic miracle is almost exclusively being driven by its private sector. Entrepreneurship is India’s strength. You can’t say the same for China. So the Commonwealth Games fiasco doesn’t really matter since it was government’s inability to organize. It doesn’t represent the real India. Nevertheless the Games earned praises at last.

  • regies

    this may sound offensive to some but most indian people i have worked with are master wordsmiths but have lack any ability whatsoever to execute, with the commonwealth games a profound testament to this fact. i don’t think this is only a government issue because persumably some parts of the constructions and organizations are being outsourced to private enterprises. have you tried to litigate a real estate dispute in india? do you know how long it generally takes? whilst the chinese, say less and do more. when ever an indian ceo takes over a global MNC, i would start selling their stock. it is a pity how many people rely on their ears and hearts to make their judgments as opposed to their mind and critical judgment. we already have too many talkers in this world, what we need are more people that are willing to get their hands dirty and get int the trenches.

  • http://ilookchina.net Lloyd Lofthouse

    Thanks for reading my post about India and China. Manjeet Pavarti, who may live in India, left several comments disagreeing with my post so I replied then wrote another post on the subject that will appear on October 22. Maybe the evidence I’m using in the next post will deal with the unfairness you saw.
    The embedded video in the next post also offers evidence of why India will probably not surpass China’s economy until about a decade after China’s growing pains are over, which will be when rural China has been modernized and that is happening now — but isn’t happening in India where even more Indians live in abject poverty with no hope in sight.
    As for China evolving into a Republic where the people will have more freedom (not freedom as a Westerner would define it but freer than the people of China have been historically), I’ll deal with that topic in another post.
    However, the reason I provided links to The Economist pieces that I cited is because that’s where the evidence is that supports my opinion. If a reader doesn’t read those pieces, there is no way my opinion will have merit. Why reinvent the wheel when The Economist has done such a good job of arguing against their opinion that India will surpass China soon.
    It’s almost as if The Economist claims that a man will sprout wings and fly then lists all the reasons why that can’t happen.

  • Asok

    As a global superpower, largest democracy in the world, with an IT industry that is second to none India has shown the world how to conduct a world class sporting event via the commonwealth games. Cheers for the Incredible India. We should not worry about China, which is trying to catch up to India.

  • Jow Lim

    I believe the Indian Prime Mininster once quoted something along the line of “slow and steady will eventually win the race…”. To that I see that it was the Chinese who had been “slow and steady”. Instead of having endless argument on “how India will surpass China”, perhaps it is much more productive for Indian to look into the approaches the Chinese had take in the past, and learn form it; as well as avoid the mistake if possible. There is NO rules that dictate a “democracy” will eventually win over a “communist” state. However, perhaps (just perhaps) the one defining rule for success (for nation or individual alike) is to the willingness to learn and adapt?
    If the general responses from Indian on website like this one is a marginally accurate guide, then it is unlikely India will be able to surpass China in the near future. On the other hand, with all these talk of India WILL surpass China, I wonder will these (kind of) arguments encourage the Chinese to be even more “determined” (for fear of the Indian surpassing them)?

  • howard

    China will definitely beat India in the future. China will take over US and become the solo superpower.

  • rashish

    well i think we indians never surpass china because what china possess is solid from inside where as india is totally depend on the IT sector and the jobs from USA. which come in the form of outsourcing india’s g8 run survive up till america top the world but as it is looking even USA face problem .but yes india surly along with china will dominate the world’s economy