Indians want to be pals but Chinese won't trust

Beijing: Most Indians regard China as a friend and partner. Their feeling is not reciprocated always, says a series of surveys conducted over nine years in both the countries.

The Chinese consider Pakistan a better partner and place India next to US and Japan in a list of nations which they fear threaten their country the most. The surveys conducted between 2000 and 2009 reveal how people of the two countries perceived each other in a period when both recorded good growth rates.

The surveys, which were conducted by the Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy firm, were released at the second India-China Forum meeting in Beijing on Saturday.

About 43 per cent Indians interviewed consider China as a partner, and only 23 per cent regarded it as an enemy. "Eight per cent said they don't know while 26 per cent said it was difficult to identify," said Yuan Yue, chairman of the consultancy group. Yuan left the meeting immediately after his presentation and efforts by Indian correspondents in Beijing to reach him failed.

About 4,500 Chinese were surveyed annually by the firm since 2000. "There is a consistent feeling in India that China is a friendly country," said Yuan, adding that 33 per cent Indians said they believe China would over take US.

In sharp contrast, the Chinese believed Indians were not as diligent as they are. They believed most Indians are poor and many of them sleep on footpaths. The Chinese, however, considered rich Indians to be wealthier than their affluent people.

Yuan said over the years Chinese attitude towards India has improved but they were not keen on forging deep economic cooperation or friendship with their neighbour.

Only 2.2 per cent Chinese regard India as the country most friendly towards their nation. "If we compare with Pakistan, more Chinese feel that it was a better partner than India. About 4.9 per cent felt that Pakistan was a better partner for China in 2009," said Yuan.

According to him, Chinese also regard India as the "weakest" among BRIC nations, (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

They also feel that Indians were not getting benefits out of their country's rise as economic power. Chinese also rate poorly India's ability to deal with its national affairs, ranking it 11th in that category. However 55.9 per cent feel India is good at dealing with "national fears".

"In terms of national leadership too India figured poorly among Chinese perceptions, as most of them do not think that India has good leadership. Nor they (Chinese) believe that future leadership can do better job," Yuan said.

On English, however, Chinese gave better ratings to India compared to them and regarded that almost everybody in India knew the language. They found it difficult to understand the English spoken by Indians but found their written English "very good".

Chinese also believe that Indians easily adapted to Western culture because India was a "colonised" country. Yuan said the Chinese poor perceptions about India warrant the two countries to strengthen co-operation and promote more exchanges in different fields.

It also calls for "intensification" interaction between media of the two countries. "We need a forum for political dialogue between two counties. We need support more exchanges between the two countries," he said.