INDIA’S PRIME MINISTER Modi is set to hold a bilateral meeting today, Wednesday, 23rd October, with Chinese President Xi Jinping — their first since the 2020 Galwan clash — on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.
I submit that such a meeting is a grave mistake by the Indian PM, as it resembles a meeting between a sheep and a wolf that wants to devour it. Let me explain.
The Indian leader has met the Chinese leader on multiple occasions in the past in an effort to improve relations between the two countries. However, I submit that certain realities appear to have been overlooked by the Indian side.
To understand this, one must recognize that modern China merely pretends to be a socialist country; in fact, it is capitalist and imperialist.
It is in the nature of capital to seek profitable avenues for investment, markets to capture, and cheap raw materials to exploit. Once a country reaches a certain level of industrial development, it becomes imperialist, seeking overseas markets and resources, as its domestic market becomes saturated.
This is why England colonized India and other countries, France colonized Algeria and Vietnam, and Japan conquered Korea, Manchuria, and parts of China, among others.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazi German imperialism posed the real threat to the world, not British or French imperialism. This was because German imperialism at that time was rising and expanding, making it aggressive, while British and French imperialism were in decline, merely trying to hold on to their colonies.
The Nazis, however, sought to conquer and enslave other nations, making them the real danger to the world.
China Army
Similarly, today, the greatest threat to the world is not from America or Europe but from China. China is on a path of aggressive expansionism, much like Hitler and the Nazis.
With its massive industry seeking markets for its goods and cheap raw materials, and its $3.4 trillion foreign exchange reserves hungrily seeking profitable investments, China is today an aggressive imperialist power and the gravest threat to the world.
While they may not be expanding militarily like Nazi Germany, they are expanding economically by undermining the economies of many countries worldwide. Over the last decade, Chinese overseas investment has skyrocketed.
Today, China is present almost everywhere: in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and, of course, the USA and Europe.
Their Belt and Road Initiative is a vast network of roads, railways, oil pipelines, power grids, ports, and other infrastructure projects connecting China to the world. Its goal is to improve infrastructure and connectivity between China and the rest of Eurasia, allowing China to dominate it.
China often focuses on key infrastructure like ports — Gwadar in Pakistan, Piraeus in Greece, and Hambantota in Sri Lanka — to establish strategic footholds in these countries.
By selling goods at less than half the price that American or European manufacturers can offer (due to higher labor costs), China has destroyed many American and European industries.
Now, China seeks to capture markets and raw materials in underdeveloped countries by dumping goods at extremely low prices, rendering local products uncompetitive.
Pakistan, for example, is flooded with cheap Chinese goods. While capturing foreign markets, China carefully protects its own through high tariffs.
President Trump deserves credit for calling China’s bluff, bluntly telling them that this arrangement would no longer work. You cannot have a 25% tariff on automobile imports into China while the USA imposes only a 2.5% tariff on cars entering the USA.
Trump imposed tariffs on several Chinese goods and threatened to impose more. In response, China announced retaliatory tariffs, but this had little impact on Americans.
It is well known that the Chinese have little regard for business ethics, which is why many American and European companies are hesitant to hire Chinese nationals from mainland China, as they often engage in industrial espionage.
As an Indian, I would like to highlight China’s economic relations with India.
India was a British colony until 1947, and British policy was largely aimed at keeping India unindustrialized. However, after independence, India began to industrialize, manufacturing goods that were previously imported.
Now, China is penetrating Indian markets at the expense of domestic industries. An article titled “How Chinese companies are beating India in its own backyard,” published on 12th December 2017 in The Economic Times, provides some interesting details.
India-China trade is heavily skewed in China’s favor. At the time of the article’s publication, Indian exports to China amounted to $16 billion, mainly in raw materials.
However, Indian imports from China stood at $68 billion, mainly in value-added goods like mobile phones, plastics, electrical goods, and machinery. This reflects the typical relationship between a colony and an imperialist country. Chinese companies use aggressive pricing, state subsidies, protectionist policies, and cheap financing to dominate foreign markets.
In certain sectors, Chinese companies dominate the Indian market. For example, the Chinese control 51% of the Indian telecom sector. Indian homes are filled with Chinese goods, such as fittings, lampshades, and tube lights. And the Chinese want to go further.
Companies like Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Xiaomi, CSITEC, CMIEC, Haier, TCL, Jiangsu Overseas Group Companies, and FiberHome Technologies, backed by the Chinese government and aggressive diplomacy, are expanding their reach globally. These companies, operating in high-tech, telecommunications, metallurgy, and steel, have deeply penetrated India.
Those who believe that Chinese imperialism can be mitigated through diplomacy fail to grasp the nature of Chinese expansionism, driven by objective economic forces that operate independently of anyone’s personal wishes.
China has forcibly occupied large tracts of land in Aksai Chin in Ladakh, revealing its true imperialist character, shredding the façade of being a peaceful, well-intentioned neighbour.
The Chinese of today are like ravenous wolves, and only a united global response — as was ultimately mounted against Hitler — can stop them from devouring other nations.
To think that relations between India and China can be improved is mere wishful thinking. It is akin to imagining a fox and a chicken coexisting peacefully in the same pen. Ignoring this danger is akin to the folly of Neville Chamberlain, who thought Hitler posed no threat until it was nearly too late. 
Markandey Katju
Justice Markandey Katju is former Judge, Supreme Court of India and former Chairman, Press Council of India.
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