External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday at the ET World Leaders Forum said that China is a 'unique problem' because it is a unique polity and economy. Jaishankar said, "It's not just an Indian problem. If today people are complaining about trade deficits with China, it is because decades ago, we all consciously chose to overlook 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 that they brought to bear."
"There is a general China problem. We are not the only country in the world that is having a debate about China. Go to Europe and ask them, what is today among your major economic or national security debates? It's about China. Look at the United States, it's obsessed with China, and rightly so in many ways," Jaishankar further said.
"India has a China problem... a special China problem that is over and above the world's general China problem," 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.
"Once you understand that because there is a general problem with China as well as our own situation, all of you know we have a very difficult situation at the border for the last four years. I think the sensible response to it is to take the precautions that a country like India is taking," the minister said.
Jaishankar had earlier said in an interview to PTI,that India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been focusing on enhancing domestic manufacturing in the last 10 years as there was a neglect of the sector before 2014 that created many problems for the country.
He also suggested that the lack of focus in the past on the manufacturing sector is linked to the upward trajectory in India-China trade notwithstanding New Delhi's approach that normalisation of ties with Beijing is dependent on the resolution of the eastern Ladakh border row.
"We need to be confident. I am clear that international politics and international relations are competitive. I have a neighbour like China. I have to learn to compete," he said.
"By my complaining, China is not going to stop doing things. If I do not build up my strength at home, our foreign policy will be as good as our domestic policy," Jaishankar said. "It is a function of our domestic policy that if I can actually build up my economy, if I can build up my manufacturing if I can create the kind of capabilities which today I am trying to do, I think you are going to find the foreign policy has much more resources and much more tool in its toolkit to actually influence the world," he added.
His response came to a query on why India's bilateral trade volume with China is going up when New Delhi has been insisting that the ties cannot be normal if the border situation is abnormal.
Jaishankar suggested that such a scenario has arisen as adequate attention to the manufacturing sector was not given before 2014 in the country.
In the last few years, the government has been making efforts to expand manufacturing in a number of critical areas as part of an aim to de-risking from China.
There has also been a greater focus on India acquiring critical technologies to minimise import dependency. "When you talk about trade, what has happened is in many ways, the fact that we actually neglected manufacturing in this country. That in many ways, we did not give the kind of support to our manufacturers, especially our small and medium enterprises," Jaishankar said.
*With Inputs from Agencies
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