Indian PM chose Xi’s hometown of Xi’an in Shaanxi province — rather than Beijing — as his first stop, a diplomatic gesture to highlight the close personal rapport between the two leaders. Xi’an, therefore, stands out as a cultural exchange centre in China’s soft-power diplomacy
Cultural diplomacy is a crucial factor in contemporary China’s foreign relations strategy. This was clearly evident in President Xi Jinping’s reception hosted for Narendra Modi in the historic city of Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, during the Indian Prime Minister’s current China trip. This has been widely referred to in the Chinese strategic circles as a “highest level” reception offered to an Indian Prime Minister in China’s protocol rubric. This is for the first time that a foreign leader was received outside Beijing by China’s leadership. Reports suggest that President Xi Jinping, by receiving Indian Prime Minister in his hometown, was reciprocating Prime Minister Modi’s gesture earlier, who had offered a similar grand welcome to the Chinese President in his (Modi’s) own State of Gujarat during his visit to India in September 2014. To what extent the Xi’an reception will be helpful in fostering India-China relations, however, remains to be seen.
Xi’an is a city of great tourist attraction, particularly for its historical artifacts, archaeological excavations and cultural traditions. Its Terracotta Warriors and Horses excavations are world-famous. The Buddhist personality, Xuan Zang, also brought renown to the city. Xi’an, therefore, stands out as a cultural exchange centre in China’s soft-power diplomacy. Receiving Prime Minister Modi in Xi’an has served multiple purposes for China.
First, it has signalled to the Indian people that China does care about India as a neighbour and President Xi Jinping holds due regard for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in that he broke the normal protocol in receiving his guest outside Beijing. The gesture also signifies an attempt by the Chinese leadership to repair the damage done to India-China relations by the boundary tensions that were exacerbated during President Xi Jinping’s tour of India in September 2014. Besides making Modi’s visit to China fairly successful, China obviously wants to pass a message that the two leaders are maintaining normal relations even though tensions have persisted between the two countries.
Second, China succeeded in resounding India that there is scope for huge India-China cultural linkages and diplomacy. Prime Minister Modi visited Dashang temple in Shaanxi and Terracotta Warriors Museum. That seems to be a harbinger of the fact that China is keen to employ cultural diplomacy to advance India-China ties in times to come. The whole idea was to emphasise on historical and cultural connection between the two sides by referring to Xuan Zang historic visit to India for 17 years, which helped Buddhism to propel in China.
Third, by inviting Prime Minister Modi to Xi’an, Beijing is cajoling India to rethink its silence on China’s invitation to India to join its Silk Road Project. Shaanxi province traditionally has been the starting point and epicentre of China’s Silk Road diplomacy, at a time when Xi’an was known as Chang’an. Shaanxi is also politically significant because political leaders from that province have played a conspicuous role in China’s policymaking after Xi Jinping has assumed power in China.
Markedly, Prime Minister Modi’s Xi’an reception was an opportunity for China to explain to the Indian Prime Minister about the One Belt, One Road project and how and where two countries can cooperate in the Silk Road Project. Shaanxi plays a significant role in pushing forward China’s Silk Road or Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) project just like China’s coastal provinces — Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong — play an influencing role in China’s Maritime Silk Road (MSR) proposal. These provinces have acted on behalf of the Central Government to host events, public relations exercises and academic fora, meeting business contacts overseas and campaigning with international bodies in the recent past for Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road initiative.
Where India is concerned, there has always been anxiety among the Chinese strategists whether it would offer any conditional or political support to the One Belt, One Road initiative. It looks like China will henceforward try with greater determination to convince India about the Silk Road Project and its merit. The Chinese effort has been to establish provincial level engagement with countries in neighbourhood region. China’s current ‘developmental partnership’ with India is an evolving course in this regard too which emphasises on the provincial level engagements.
Already, India has agreed to support and join the Chinese-proposed AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), where the thrust is on infrastructure building, as a founding member. China itself is, however, still trying to gauge the scope and operational aspects of the AIIB. India may ideally like to wait before committing itself to expressly support China’s Silk Road Project, though there is a historical legacy of cooperation in a vision of this kind between the two countries.
China has anticipated that India may offer some conditional support to China’s MSR project, if not the SREB. There is no reason, in the view of the Chinese strategic community, why India should not offer support to SREB, given that China now is offering political support to India’s inclusion in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a full member. The opinion is unanimous among Chinese experts that it is just a matter of time when the SCO will be expanded and India will be included in it as a member.
China successfully brought Xi’an into international limelight by hosting the Indian Prime Minister in that city. It also helped China to bring new focus to Shaanxi as a province. The Chinese planning with regard to Xi’an is huge. The city is set to assume an important responsibility in promoting China’s SREB project. It also aims to become the stationing point for almost 40 consulates in the next five years. Xi’an not only wants to push ahead the SREB but also aims to act as a pivotal city as a bridge between China and Central Asia. This becomes vital at a time when the SCO is on the verge of expansion and China aims to have a greater role in Central Asia.
Inviting Prime Minister Modi to visit Xi’an has helped President Xi to showcase the importance of Shaanxi in China’s regional diplomacy. India in its turn must take note of China’s interior provinces that are not so close to its borders. Shaanxi may not be important for India as far as security matters are concerned, but provinces individually do play a strong role in China’s foreign policy planning and diplomacy. Especially in the current context, President Jinping aims to empower most of China’s provinces through his vision of a “Chinese dream”. India needs to take note of this Chinese grand thinking, which puts that country much ahead of other countries in world politics today. Prime Minister Modi’s grand reception in Xi’an was a classic Chinese undertaking, which must be read beyond its reciprocity.
Dr Jagannath Panda is Research Fellow and Heads the East Asia Centre as Coordinator at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. He can be contacted at jppjagannath@gmail.com