The media in India and China should focus on their soft power

The year of 2009 will be known for the global economic crisis at the same time the media community in India and China were involved in bashing each other and it almost resulted into a proxy war kind of situation. As on 1st of April 2010, India and China celebrates their 60th Anniversary of diplomatic relations, it was important to create bonhomie between them. The conference on 30th march 2010, organized by China Foreign Publishing Group was a right step to bring the media community right on the track. Apart from resident reporters based in Beijing, there were senior media representatives from India, including Karan Thappar (well known TV host) , Suhasini Haider (deputy editor of CNN-IBN), and kanchan Gupta (The Pioneer), who all attended a one day direct dialogue to focus on bringing the media community together. From the Chinese side, it included all and sundry, the boss of the State Information Council (a minister rank) Mr. Wang Chen was the guest of honor. Then the rest were many ex ambassadors to India and the wife of deceased Foreign Minister Huang Hua.

I was invited as a student representative to witness the dialogue taking place not far from the Forbidden City. It was intriguing to know that Karan Thappar was very provocative and covered all and but not the one issues between India and China which were not touched by His Excellency the Indian Ambassador to China. Karan wanted the PRC to come out in full support of India’s UN candidacy, to which Chinese audience took to a corner. Then Karan raised the boundary issue and made it easy for the Indian Foreign Minster S M Krishna who is scheduled to visit China on 7th of this month. To this issue Chinese response was that we need to have patience and let’s do business first. Karan also touched upon many more issues but he expressed that his first visit will change his perception about the way he has been viewing the PRC and its peaceful rise (or development).

Then to my notice was Mr. Verma, the PTI man who has last month moved to Beijng after spending seven years in a row in Islamabad. He made his own point based upon his own experience in Islamabad, and felt very excited after landing in the Forbidden City. Mr. Verma felt Islamabad is more open than Beijing and wanted more session with the foreign ministry in China. Mr. kanchan Gupta of The Pioneer pushed us into the ages of philosophy by quoting several stanzas of the famous Chinese text of I-Ching. His own experience of visit to the Forbidden City, the day before, was eye opening, and made him to prepare his speech all around this one ancient text. Nevertheless, he was very appreciative of what PRC has achieved in a short time and wanted India to repeat the same example. The Indian diplomats at the forum were very miser and choosy in using words, and it seems to me that their PR training is really showing positive result.
Let me also mention here the stereotype Image of India as mentioned by almost all the Chinese high profile speakers at the forum. India along with other three ancient and great civilizations is “never to be slipped-off your tongue” phenomenon for any Chinese speaker. After all the history obsession of China makes it look taller and a more ancient civilization compared to the current sole Superpower. China is obsessed with India’s history and its gift of Buddhism to them, but it will avoid talking of India’s of Rajiv Gandhi and post- reform period. What I observe here at universities when I teach is that the young Chinese born after 1980s and 1990s are much more interested in knowing the current India and her emerging role. But they are deprived of this story from the Chinese state media due to their only obsession with India’s grand old history and the Tang Dynasty’s famous monk Hsuien Tsang’s famous “Journey to the West”.

I wonder if the electronic and print media in the two countries could focus more on the new China and the new India and inform the current young generation who is more liberal and have enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous environment in its neighborhood. My only appeal to both the India and the Chinese media is that, please do learn a lesson from the Chinese speakers, and the right message, if I could read it between the lines, was that it is the soft-power of India and China which should be more emphasized and not just limited to the missile test and military build-up. After all, the world’s largest military power talks about its Soft-power as its legitimate weapons of world dominance.

Note: The writer is a foreign faculty @Beijing Foreign Studies University and can be contacted at mr.gaoxing@gmail.com