Podcast: India and China’s Brave New World

On this week’s Asia Unbound podcast, Anja Manuel, cofounder and partner at RiceHadleyGates and author of This Brave New World: India, China and the United States, offers her prescription for how the United States can understand and engage with Asia’s two largest rising powers. Manuel compares and contrasts Indian and Chinese history, leaders, and trajectories, ultimately arriving at a pair of distinct national ambitions: China aims to regain its long-lost place on center stage, and India wishes to re-engage with the world after being relatively isolated since independence. She is sanguine about troubling headlines, such as China’s faltering economy and India’s violent outbursts of Hindu nationalism, which she believes will not hold the two countries back from achieving their greater goals, but acknowledges continuing challenges in both countries’ relations with the outside world, such as unfair business practices or Chinese cyber policies. For Manuel’s recommendations as to what role the United States should play, listen to our conversation below. By her assessment, we are on the right track by bolstering ties with India and—especially in the face of occasional adversity—continuing to seek areas of cooperation with China.