AS NATIONS grow economically, they do so very differently with contrasting political systems and economic models.
And what better comparison there is if not for China and India - the two most populous nations and largest and fastest growing economies of the world.
One is described as the biggest democracy on earth while the other remains a stronghold of Communism.
According to former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, the two countries were a good example of the difference between the threat posed by free versus unfree governments.
In her latest book “With All Due Respect” reviewed by Times of India, Haley dissects the contrasting relationships between the US and the two countries.
Taking an offensive position on China, she said that in contrast of the US' growing partnership with India, the greatest foreign threat America now faced was China.
"China is working strategically to spread its financial and military presence across the globe - and not in a good way.
“China steals intellectual property. It helps North Korea cheat on sanctions,” Haley claimed.
“The Chinese manipulate their currency in ways that poison our trade relationship,” she said, adding that they were enlarging their military at a rapid pace.
The two-term South Carolina governor alleged that in addition to being a bad economic actor and a strategic threat, the Chinese government was one of the greatest human rights abusers in the world.
She said China had created “re-education” camps against an ethnic and religious minority, and an Orwellian surveillance state to protect Communist Party control over its people.
“It was high time to take a more aggressive approach to US trade with China,” she said.
“Meanwhile, India is a nuclear power and nobody gives it a second thought. Why? Because India is a democracy and threatens no one,” wrote the Indian American Haley, whose Sikh parents moved to the US in 1969.
“The US has a partnership with India that is strong and getting stronger. Our partnership is strategic. Both countries have been the victims of terrorism,” she said.
“We share a commitment to stopping Afghanistan and Pakistan from giving safe harbour to terrorists, like they did before September 11, 2001. Most important, our partnership is based on shared principles.”
Haley said though she was not a fan of tariffs, as it raised prices for consumers, farmers, and businesses, she was grateful that US president Donald Trump had taken on China over its trade practices.
“And I couldn't agree more with his bottom line: We don't want temporary measures from China. We want systematic, verifiable changes in the way it treats American companies and American imports.
“Even in China, the limited free-market reforms the government has allowed have had near miraculous results,” she wrote.
“In 1990, almost 756 million Chinese were living in extreme poverty. By 2015, that number had shrunk to less than 10 million. That is amazing progress, thanks to their embrace of economic freedom.
“But it is progress that China cannot sustain as long as it continues to micro-manage its economy and deny political freedom to its people,” she said.