Media reportage on India-China affect political, business negotiations between two countries: Author

Perceptions about India-China relationship created by media reportage from both the countries "affect" political and business negotiations between them, according to author of a new book. Titled 'Running with the Dragon: How India should do business with China', the book, written by Beijing-based journalist Saibal Dasgupta, also points out India's potential to "enhance exports to China by nearly 30 per cent".

"The knottiest issue between India and China is the trust deficit between them and both sides need to take steps to reduce that gap... Both countries share thousands of years of history and can learn a lot from each other," he said at the launch of the book here. Dasgupta, in his 228-page work, has assigned a chapter 'Public Discourses: A Crucial Challenge' and he says, perceptions created by media coverage and reports by think-tanks based in both the countries have affect political and business negotiations between the two sides.

"An important reason for holding back Indian investment in China and vice versa is the negative media coverage of each other in the two countries... Investors see the cacophony heard in business and political meetings over the formal and social media as serious political risks," read the book. Military issues like the Doklam stand-off garnered much media attention while other aspects of India-China relationship are not talked about, leading to creation of biased perceptions about each other.

Dasgupta also said that knowing each other's culture more can lead to enhanced business ties. "Both countries have history of thousands of years, and while there are cultural similarities, there are differences too. If people from both the countries endeavour to know each other's cultural differences and act accordingly, they can do better business," he said.

The book, published by Penguin, also argues that India has taken the right step by rejecting RCEP as cheap Chinese goods are turning factory owners into importers and causing severe unemployment, the author later said in a statement. At least one-third of the goods imported from China are based on extremely low technologies and similar to what is already produced in India. This is one of the reasons why India recently refused to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), it said.

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