China and India have some common ground despite the border issues and wider security concerns. A major global change over the last generation is the relative decline of the West in economic terms vis-a-vis the emerging economies of the Global South. In 1990, the West (including Japan) accounted for around 60% of the world economy. This helped stoke the hubris accompanying the narrative of having “won” the Cold War. The West’s share has now shrunk to under 40%, and the relative shrinking continues — emerging economies, led by China and India, are growing substantially faster than even the relatively dynamic US, let alone Europe and Japan.

China accounts for much of this shift. China’s prodigious 9-10% annual growth over four decades has led to a point where it almost matches the US in economic size and exceeds it on a purchasing power parity basis. It also dominates global manufacturing and many key technologies. China’s adoption of Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up” occurred a decade earlier than India’s reforms under Manmohan Singh, and those reforms were more far-reaching.

But the past is not necessarily a guide to the future. India’s growth of around 7% per annum is now considerably faster than China’s, and India is now the most rapidly growing major economy. A variety of factors are at work: the continuation of earlier economic liberalisation, massive infrastructure investment, digitisation, the consolidation of India’s large and hitherto fragmented domestic market.........

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