Wolfgang Schuerer, Chairman and CEO of MS Management Service in Switzerland and professor of International and Foreign Affairs at Georgetown University, gave a speech on economic and political affairs in China and India at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy yesterday morning.
Stephen Bosworth, dean of the Fletcher School, introduced Schuerer. "There is no one I respect more when it comes to global affairs," Bosworth said.
Schuerer's speech focused on the differences and commonalities between China and India, where the current dynamic between the two countries is going to lead, and its impact on the United States and Europe.
He said that because China and India collectively compose two-fifths of the world's population, the geopolitical and economic differences present a challenge to the rest of the world.
Schuerer drew contrasts between China's ambitions to become a global superpower versus India's geopolitical weaknesses. He said that the stability lost in Pakistan and the relations lost in Kashmir create "a substantive ongoing risk which deserves attention with respect to India's role as an ally to the United States."
On the other hand, China is more determined to play a bigger role on the world's stage through its economically powerful territories with an entrepreneurial spirit greater than that of India's, Schuerer said.
Schuerer used the 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World's Fair in Shanghai as supporting evidence.
"This shows China's economic aspect, motivation, and desire," he said.
But, India's ability to be part of the structural process has increased recently, Schuerer said.
Regarding corruption in the two bureaucracies, Schuerer said that the bureaucracies in India have continued to undermine the rights of its citizens, and that China's bureaucrats currently remain the sole "gatekeepers" in China.
He called regulation the "silent incentive of the People's Republic."
According to Schuerer, the differences between the two countries should not be seen as a means to pit one country against the other.
"It's not about the tiger overtaking the dragon, but about their impact on other areas and nations," he said.
China and India's emergence as world powers creates new layers of global-economic independence, forcing leaders around the world to make new economic and political decisions. Schuerer said that each nation's rise is dependent on "the three C's - crude oil, cars, and capital."
After the lecture, Genhua Wang, an international student originally from China, said that Scheuer is "confident on China's economic growth, but other problems [like] state sector issues and social issues like poverty and unemployment are important as well."
The lecture, which is a part of the Charles Francis Adams Lecture Series at the Fletcher School, ended with a group lunch.
