What if India and China combine into one entity

So this post came about as a result of an hour long competition, in which we had to answer a hypothetical question. This was my response. The question was... What if India and China combine to form one entity. 


Social:

• India will learn from China’s iron-fist approach to remove retrograde practices and modernize the whole society while China will get exposed to an experience of maintaining a heterogeneous culture.

• Restaurants like ‘Sher-e-Shanghai’ and ‘Jade Palace Jalandhar’.

Political:

• China learns from India’s experience with multi-party democracy while India’s political system learns from the party discipline and the political commitment to rapid growth that characterizes China’s polity.

Geopolitical:

• Combine land forces of 9 million soldiers, air force of 4000 aircrafts, naval presence in two oceans, strategic missiles with capability to hit any part of the world and territorial extent of 10000 miles extending from Pacific Rim to Arabian Sea. Control over straits of Malacca and some of the busiest trade routes of the world. Diplomats/spies can benefit from each other’s networks in Africa and South America in order to counter the dominance of Western interests. India will get veto on UN Security Council.

Economic:

• World’s largest economic entity with the fastest growth rate, with a customer base of more than 2.5 billion (1/3 of world), combined GDP (PPP) of 15 Trillion US$ (1/5th of world). Low per capita income base means much scope for long term sustained growth.

R&D:

• Combine R&D expenditure of 200 billion US$ (PPP) and the largest scientific and technical manpower in the world will power the next knowledge revolution.

Cultural:

• Combined entertainment through Hong Kong based action movies and Bollywood masala movies. Bollywood will get large untapped market and China gets new stories.

• 5000-year old civilizations with rich cultural heritage will draw in record tourists, archaeological interest and boost intra-country tourism.

Sports:

• China learns to play cricket.

• China’s expertise in developing a world beating sporting culture will bring the best talent from India’s population.

Resource:

• Chindia will have access to large natural resources. Together they can exploit the largest non-polar source of fresh water in world, second largest coal reserves, largest iron ore reserves, large shale gas resources, largest rare earth reserves and largest arable land in the world. 

MILITARY STRENGTH IN NUMBERS



PS: A little more research after the competition made me realize that this would definitly a merger between unequals. China stand to gain very little, since it already leads in many of the areas listed and if continues to grow at the same pace, it may become as large and powerful as this hypothetical India-China combine.