Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran has said that China does not want to allow India to grow like the West allowed China to grow. He said this is why China is not going to make investments in India’s critical sectors.
China does not want to repeat the “mistake” of the West by enabling India’s growth, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran has said.
In an apparent reality check on his own suggestion made last year about attracting Chinese investments, Nageswaran has said that China will not allow India to grow the way the West allow China to grow with investments and partnerships in critical sectors.
“I think they feel that we shouldn’t do to India what the West allowed us to do — sort of to grow at their expense. So we shouldn’t be repeating the same mistake is the kind of commentary that I read in in Chinese newspapers…So I think they are not going to send us the investments that we think are absolutely critical to us. They may do so in non-critical areas,” said Nageswaran.
Instead of hoping for Chinese investments, India should look forward to attracting some of the foreign manufacturers located in China, according to Nageswaran.
China feels that it should not allow India to grow the way the West allowed China to grow. China does not want to repeat the West’s mistakes. China is not going to send India investments we think are critical, says India’s Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran pic.twitter.com/fwMo5L85hi
— Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) December 12, 2025
Last year, however, Nageswaran had suggested in the Economic Survey that India should either integrate into China’s supply chain or promote foreign direct investment (FDI) from China to boost its global exports, according to Reuters.
“Among these choices, focusing on FDI from China seems more promising for boosting India’s exports to the US, similar to how East Asian economies did in the past,” said Nageswaran.
The Economic Survey said that choosing the FDI strategy “appears more advantageous than relying on trade” as it can arrest the growing trade deficit India has with China, according to the news agency.
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