The Hindu : Smooth landing for China Eastern

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 30, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Smooth landing for China Eastern

By C. Raja Mohan

BEIJING March 29. The historic direct flight of China Eastern Airlines from New Delhi had a perfect touchdown in a foggy morning here in the Chinese capital. Stepping out of the aircraft, the External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, found the right words to convey the greetings from all Indians to ''the friendly people'' of China.

More than 50 years ago, at one of their earliest meetings, premiers Zhou Enlai and Jawaharlal Nehru discussed the prospect of establishing direct air links between the two countries. The two nations have had to wait through five wasted decades of bilateral relations to establish something as simple as direct air links. Better late than never!

In five and a half hours of the journey between New Delhi and Beijing, which until recently took almost a whole day, the Airbus A 340 of China Eastern travelled East to Bangladesh and Myanmar and swung up north towards Beijing. The biweekly flights of China Eastern will connect both the political and commercial capitals of China — Beijing and Shanghai— to New Delhi.

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If in the past political considerations came in the way of direct air links between the two countries, there are lingering doubts now about the commercial viability of a direct air corridor between India and China. But optimists are hopeful and come up with the counter argument, people will not use something until it exists.

One way of boosting air traffic between the two countries is for China to declare India as a preferred destination for Chinese tourists whose ranks are swelling every year as the level of prosperity in the nations grows by leaps and bounds.

If Beijing makes the necessary modification of its regulations on foreign travel, it will make it easier for tour operators in China to bring in large number of air travellers to India. All indications here are that there is considerable interest in seeing the many attractions of India from Buddhist sites to Bollywood and indeed the Taj Mahal.

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Meanwhile, the Indian upper middle class has become an important source of international tourist traffic. Once they discover the new ease of travel to China and the pleasures of cheap accommodation and shopping in Beijing and Shanghai, Indian tourists themselves might begin to make a beeline to a nation that has remained remote despite such close physical proximity.

China Eastern could also hope to attract the non-resident Indian community on the West Coast of the United States and Canada to travel to go home via China, and may be spend a few days and some greenbacks in seeing China. All to the good.

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Aboard the China Eastern flight the airhostesses and stewards are young, smartly turned out and hope to win Indian hearts with their service-orientation. But it will be a while before they improve the level of English and the peculiar demands of the Indian clientele — premium whisky at night and a cup of Indian style tea or coffee with milk in the morning.

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The Chinese communist leaders know how to live in style — in the ancient imperial capital "Zhongnanhai''. Chairman Mao was in no hurry to move into the luxurious quarters of Zhongnanhai after the communist revolution in 1949. ''Let's not rush things. We don't want to end up like Li Zicheng''. Mao's reference was to a man who led a peasant rebellion and toppled the Ming dynasty in 1644 AD.

Since then the leadership has settled in for a long haul at Zhongnanhai, which is all power and glory. Few ordinary Chinese will ever make it inside. For the Chinese bureaucrats, intellectuals and advisers on the make, ``to be called to Zhongnanhai'' is a reward in itself. Zhongnanhai can be translated as ``Central and Southern Seas'', probably in a reference to the complex of lakes that dot the compound. It is also known as ``Sea Palaces''. And for outsiders, it is just ``China's Kremlin''.

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