By Kenneth J. Cooper

November 29, 1996 - The Washington Post

NEW DELHI, Nov. 28 -- As neighboring nations with new governments in the late 1940s, the two were as close as brothers, until they had a big fight and went their separate ways.

Over the years, one grew stronger and more prosperous, making the other feel envy and admiration. Now, they just want to be friends.

According to officials from both countries, the arrival here today of Chinese President Jiang Zemin marks a maturing in diplomatic relations between the world's two most populous countries, which have had their ups and downs. Jiang, who met today with Indian President Shankar Sharma, is the highest-ranking Chinese official ever to visit India.

During the three-day visit, India and China are expected to agree to pull back more troops from a disputed Himalayan border where in 1962 they fought a brief war that left the loser, India, humiliated. Other agreements to be signed Friday when Jiang meets Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda would expand trade, combat drug trafficking and let India keep its consulate in Hong Kong after China absorbs the British colony next year.

Both countries are likely to raise sore points, as well, but not press them hard enough to spoil the unprecedented Chinese visit to New Delhi, Indian Foreign Ministry officials said. India will complain about China's sale to Pakistan, India's regional rival, of technology that could be used for nuclear weapons. Jiang also will ask again for India to recognize Tibet which China annexed in 1950 -- as an inseparable part of Chinese territory.

After official business and a trip to the monumental Taj Mahal, Jiang departs Sunday for Pakistan and then Nepal, in keeping with India's usual insistence that world leaders make that country their first stop on tours of South Asia.

In Islamabad, a Pakistani official said Jiang will try to persuade acting Prime Minister Meraj Khalid to adopt "a more flexible role" in Afghanistan. Pakistan is seen as favoring the Taliban, a radical Islamic group that controls two-thirds of Afghanistan, in that country's civil war. A Foreign Ministry official today said Pakistan, which in recent years has had closer ties to China, is not worried about losing a friend to India because "we have an historic relationship with China. . . . We trust each other."

Jiang's trip to New Delhi probably has more significance for India and China than any of the expected agreements or unresolved differences.

Sino-Indian relations have almost always appeared somewhat one-sided, with India seeming more eager for close contacts.

It was India that promoted the idea in the 1950s that Indians and Chinese were brothers and then sent three prime ministers to Beijing * Jawaharlal Nehru in 1954, Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 and P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1993. Gandhi's visit broke a long chill after the 1962 war that caused a break in diplomatic relations until 1976, and it took China three years to reciprocate with a state visit to New Delhi by Premier Li Peng in 1991. Neither paramount leader of modern China, Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping, has visited India.

The modern states of India and China stood at a similar stage of development when they were established in 1947 and 1949, respectively. There were vast differences even then. But both were big Asian nations trying to uplift poor populations after the end of foreign rule, with China taking a communist path and India a socialist one. China, the larger and more populous of the two, has since spurted ahead and acquired more diplomatic, military and economic clout than India.

China has been a declared nuclear power for three decades. India exploded a nuclear device in 1974, but successive governments have maintained they have not actually produced and deployed nuclear weapons. India's military establishment often cites a possible threat from China's nuclear weapons and its more advanced missiles in urging India to produce both.

Bitter memories of the 1962 war make many older Indians insecure about China's advantages in conventional forces. It has more manpower and a more sophisticated defense industry, which exports equipment and technology. In addition, Pakistan, India's arch-rival, has relied heavily on Chinese armaments since the United States imposed a military embargo in 1990. It has bought Chinese tanks and F-7P warplanes, and Chinese-built factories in Pakistan produce training aircraft and armored personnel carriers.

China's faster economic growth and ability to attract exponentially larger sums of foreign investment also upset many Indians. China turned toward international markets in 1978, 13 years earlier than India, and an apparent Western preference for investing in an authoritarian country has rankled many citizens of the world's largest democracy.

"The Indians are envious, furious about this," said Giri Deshingkar, director of the independent Institute of Chinese Studies here.

"Indians get very angry because the Chinese don't treat us as competitors," Deshingkar said. "Now they are treating us like we're their poor cousins."