Thread by @ThePrintIndia

The perception of China as an adversarial, hostile and arrogant country is largely stereotypical and not based on looking at China as another culture. Like India, China too is a civilisation: Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta China has a 'visual' culture where the ideogram, image and word are important, but in India, the sound is important. Much of our history is oral, and this contrast determines the prism through which you are looking at the rest of the world: Shyam Saran at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta Exposure to China was something very new for me when I went to Hong Kong to learn Mandarin after joining the Indian Foreign Service. Previously I had no familiarity with the country: Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta As far as the Han people are concerned, they certainly have a much stronger sense of identity and a certain sense of homogeneity which perhaps for a more diverse and plural country like India is sometimes difficult to understand: Shyam Saran at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta Over a period of time, several Chinese people came to India, studied in universities like Nalanda and were very much struck by the prosperity of India as a knowledge centre of the world: Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta While there was a familiarity with India at least within the Chinese elite in the first millennium due to trade and the spread of Buddhism, you don’t find any major impact of China on India during this period: Shyam Saran at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta More recently, India and China have perceived each other without much knowledge of each other, beyond the work done by diplomats and scholars: Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta Not many Indians are aware that the opium trade actually created a certain merchant capitalist class in India, so we do not realise the scarring that took place on the other side in China at that time: Shyam Saran at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta It’s not necessary that China, being a somewhat authoritarian dispensation, can’t provide space for technological development. By putting huge amounts into science and technology, education, human development, they are doing rather well: Shyam Saran at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta The Russian relationship has turned out to be a bad bet for China, with the expectation that with this tremendous military push, Ukraine would collapse within a few days, says Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta We are in a potentially sweet spot because in terms of the way in which geopolitics is churning, India is a very important player, like what they call a 'swing state', says Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta In the long term, India-Russia relations has been constantly diminishing and to the extent that Russia is becoming close to China, it is an element of discomfort for us, Shyam Saran tells @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta If we look at the CCP’s attitudes and outlook on India, there is a remarkable consistency so any changes in leadership would not necessarily mean major shifts. Rather, Chinese posture towards India is more influenced by how they see geopolitics: Shyam Saran at #ThePrintOTC

I’ve always believed that if there’s one country which has the area, population, resources, talent and capabilities to not only match China but even overtake it, it is India: Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta There has been a change in government in Pakistan from Imran Khan to now Shahbaz Sharif. I get a sense that there has been a certain level of disquiet at Pakistan’s overdependence on China: Shyam Saran in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

@ShekharGupta China has flourished because it has been densely interconnected with the rest of the world, and if you start attacking those drivers of growth, there could be trouble ahead, Shyam Saran tells @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC

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