The media in India and China should focus on their soft power
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The year of 2009 is known for the global economic crisis, at the same time the media community in India and China were involved in bashing each other and it almost resulted in a proxy war kind of situation. With India and China celebrating their 60th Anniversary of diplomatic relations on April 1, 2010, it is important to create bonhomie between them.
The conference on March 30, 2010, organized by China International Publishing Group, was a right step to bring the media community right on the track. Apart from resident reporters based in Beijing, there were senior media representatives from India, including Karan Thappar (well known TV host) , Suhasini Haider (deputy editor of CNN-IBN), and Kanchan Gupta (The Pioneer), who all attended a one-day direct dialogue to focus on bringing the media community together. From the Chinese side, it included all and sundry; the boss of the State Council Information Office(at ministerial level), Mr. Wang Chen, was the guest of honor. Then the rest were many ex ambassadors to India and the wife of deceased Foreign Minister Huang Hua.
I was invited as a student representative to witness the dialogue taking place not far from the Forbidden City. It was intriguing to know that Karan Thappar was very provocative and covered all and but not the one issues between India and China which were not touched by His Excellency the Indian Ambassador to China. Karan wanted the PRC to come out in full support of India's UN candidacy, to which Chinese audience took to a corner. Then Karan raised the boundary issue and made it easy for the Indian Foreign Minster S M Krishna who was scheduled to visit China on 7th of this month. To this issue Chinese response was that we need to have patience and let's do business first. Karan also touched upon many more issues but he expressed that his first visit will change his perception about the way he has been viewing the PRC and its peaceful rise (or development).
