作者： bharat.cn

Hosted by the China Council for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Think Tank Cooperation (CCBTC) and organized by the Beijing International Studies University, the 3rd annual conference of CCBTC was held in Beijing on Friday.

More than 200 Chinese scholars and representatives of universities, research institutions and enterprises had in-depth exchanges on the theme “Path to Rejuvenation amid Biggest Change in a Century.” 

The forum discussed diverse topics such as great changes unseen in a century and China-US relations, global governance and new South-South cooperation, and new industrial revolution and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Guo Yezhou, CCBTC chair and vice minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), said that the council’s responsibility and value are to provide intellectual support for BRICS’s cooperation.

Guo stressed that all governing units should focus on promoting new South-South cooperation, and pay close attention to the turning points caused by scientific and technological changes to grasp insightful methods of the changing international environment.

Guo also noted that the council will continue to provide platforms and resource support for all governing units.

Huang Yiyang, a deputy director-general of the Department of International Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that think tank cooperation among BRICS countries have been enriched and expanded under the guidance of CCBTC, and many valuable and feasible policy suggestions have been put forward for BRICS’s cooperation.

Huang stated that BRICS’s cooperation has become one of the most important multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and hoped that all governing units of CCBTC can take full advantage of their strengths, actively deliver suggestions and speak out to the outside world and make contributions to the major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.

Although trade between China and the US will not return to the original pattern, 2020 will undoubtedly be a crucial year for China to expand its export market and, at the same time, increase its import sources. We have seen that the efforts of Chinese companies have brought positive results. According to official data, the proportion of China’s imports and exports with emerging markets increased 1.7 percentage points to 59.5 percent of China’s total trade volume in the first 11 months of 2019. 

 This situation will help India expand its exports to China.

China-India trade has been affected by the trade war during the past year. According to Chinese statistics, from January to September 2019, China-India trade was $69.66 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3 percent. Breaking the total down, China’s exports to India stood at $56.31 billion, a reduction of 2.7 percent, while imports from India were $13.35 billion, down 4.1 percent. India’s trade deficit with China reached $42.96 billion. India urgently needs to expand exports to China. It’s become a vital issue in bilateral relations.

In terms of Indian exports to China, mineral products, chemical products and textiles are the top three categories. In 2018, India exported $5.03 billion worth of mineral products, $3.63 billion of chemical and $1.84 billion of textiles, and these three products accounted for 63.6 percent of India’s exports to China. 

China imports many raw materials, mostly for use in manufacturing, which generate a large number of export products. Since the outbreak of the trade war, China’s export to the US have been affected by increased tariffs. That in turn has forced Chinese manufacturers to reduce their imports of raw materials from India.

In India, the protests genuinely seem to be motivated by the citizenship and immigration laws – or rather, a misunderstanding thereof. That did not stop the issue from being quickly weaponized, both by Indian politicians and neighboring countries that have conflicts with New Delhi. However, and somewhat crucially, the one player who has so far refrained from getting involved is Washington.

Oh sure, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has condemned “religious violence” in India and called for PM Narendra Modi to “stop use of force on those exercising right to express concern” about the new laws – but the State Department has so far not followed the lead of its attack dog. In fact, by keeping Pakistan on the “naughty” list of countries concerning religious freedom, Foggy Bottom managed to get India and Pakistan to actually agree on something: condemning the US for meddling in their internal affairs.

Yet such meddling can’t hold a candle to the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy” Act which the US Congress adopted – and President Donald Trump signed – at the beginning of December. If the Indian laws are truly as awful as the mainstream media says, don’t they warrant something similar?