Article Posted on : - Nov 26, 2009

A File Photo.

NEW DELHI (BNS): China is not a threat but India's longtime "strategic challenge", according to strategic and defence experts.

"China is India's longtime strategic challenge but not a threat and we have to ensure that it does not become a threat," Centre for Air-Power Studies Director Air Commodore (retd) Jasjit Singh told a United Services Institution (USI) seminar on "Rising China: Opportunity or Strategic Challenge" here.

It was because of the rise of China, India and Japan in the region that the geo-political power in 21st century is shifting to Asia, observed Lt Gen (retd) V R Raghavan.

Jasjit Singh commented that power is returning back to the East after it was poorly-hit by the industrial revolution in the West.

"Industrial revolution in Europe had affected the growth of both China and India. The two nations, at the beginning of the 18th century, had contained 62 per cent of the world's GDP, with China containing 32 per cent and India 22 per cent," he said.

Unemployment, growing gap between rich and poor, and corruption as main challenges for Beijing, as cited by Prof Zhang Guihong of China's Fudan University. He said that the rise of the 'Dragon nation' was peaceful.