4HrZ0SQu6kD Author: Zhang Jiadong opinion.huanqiu.com article Zhang Jiadong: Understanding the Internal Logic of Western Media's Reports on India /e3pmub6h5/e3pr9baf6 <article><section data type="rtext"><p>Observing the Indian related reports of western media, we can find that they sometimes praise India, calling it a "democratic miracle" and "the beginning of the Indian century"; Sometimes, India will be suppressed, calling it "low economic openness" and "low tolerance for ethnic minorities". These arguments with different tones seem to be contradictory, but they are not only an embodiment of India's complex and diverse fragmented reality, but also a reflection of India's cognitive diversity and fragmented situation by the western media</ p> <p>On the surface, this is mainly due to two factors: first, with the rapid increase of international visibility, India's reaction in the international community has also increased. After the end of the Cold War, India has long complained that the international community pays too much attention to China and ignores itself. Now the attention of the international community to India has indeed increased, but there are more relevant negative reports and comments. Second, the motivation of the reporting subject is different. Criticism of India often stems from the economic needs of these western media. They need to attract readers' attention, so they can only report bad news as much as possible. Praising India often stems from the political and strategic needs of western countries to woo India. These two groups often speak at the same time, so the Indian related reports in the western media are naturally mixed</ p> <p>From a deeper perspective, these differences in India related reports reflect the complex mentality of western countries towards India</ p> <p>On the one hand, the West sees India's strategic value and political significance. First, the West sees India's geopolitical values. India is a big country with a superior geographical position. It is also a neighbor of China. It has border disputes and historical grievances with China. During the Cold War, this characteristic of India placed it on the edge of geopolitics. But at present, this characteristic of India gives it a great degree of strategic freedom. The West is trying to use India to contain China and play its strategic role. Second, India's "democratic model" function. India is known as "the largest democratic country in the world", and it is a democratic system generated in the soil that is not suitable for democratic political system. This allows the West to cite India to demonstrate the universality of Western style democracy. These two aspects allow the western media to often find "gold mine of public opinion" in India</ p> <p>On the other hand, the western media pay more attention to India</ p> <p>First, the rise of Hindu nationalism is widely seen in the West as a political regression. The West generally believes that India has a poor record in minority protection. Now, India will also introduce Hindu nationalism into the field of democratic politics, from emphasizing the commonness of Indian democracy and western democracy to emphasizing the Indian characteristics of democratic politics later. In recent years, Indian politicians have also further explored the Indian roots of democracy. India does not want to be a student of the West in democratic politics, but also a political teacher of the West in turn. This makes many people in the West very dissatisfied</ p> <adv-loader __attr__inner="7004636" __attr__style="width: auto; position: relative;float: left;border: 1px solid #ebebeb; padding: 20px;overflow: hidden;margin: 10px 30px 40px 0; "></adv-loader> <p>Second, India's tradition of strategic autonomy has caused widespread dissatisfaction in the West. As a result, the strategic cooperation between the West and India is often argumentative and opportunistic. Although India currently attaches importance to the development of cooperative relations with the West, it has its own dream of being a great power and is unwilling to act as a strategic follower of the West. India is willing to hitch a ride with the West, but it is not willing to be deeply bound with the West so that it can jump off at any time and become a pole of its own. In major international issues such as the Russia Ukraine conflict, India did not fully follow the pace of the West, but kept relatively neutral between Russia and the West with the goal of maximizing its own interests. In the Palestinian Israeli conflict, although the Indian leaders once said that they would stand by Israel, they quickly withdrew quietly and returned to the middle position again. This made the West very dissatisfied. Obviously, India and the West have a relationship of mutual utilization: the West wants to balance China with India, while India tries to turn its strategic value into political and economic benefits. The strategic partnership based on interests is very unstable, because interests themselves and their perceptions of interests often change</ p> <p>Third, the West has a psychological ceiling on India's prospects. The western strategic assumption of India is a strategic counterweight to China. This setting is mainly based on India's national strength, rather than the characteristics of India's values. In the strategic cognition of many western countries, China is the biggest strategic competitor, and India is the world power closest to China. In the international strategic sequence, both the West and India have become China's close neighbors. According to the basic logic of friendship, the West and India have strategic commonalities. However, the premise of this strategic assumption is that India is close to China, but cannot become the second China, let alone surpass China, otherwise India will become a new strategic competitor of the West. This means that although the West will support India's development and hope that India can develop a force that can effectively balance China, there is a limit to this willingness. India knows this. Indian leaders have repeatedly stressed that India is not willing to act as a strategic balancer, but rather a chess player at the moment. Therefore, India has put forward the self-reliance initiative in recent years, which is not only an economic consideration, but also an international strategic consideration</ p> <p>The relationship between India and the West is still in the honeymoon period at present. In the Indian related reports of the western media, negative and negative voices are generally suppressed. However, if the international situation changes, the relationship between India and the West may also be more turbulent. There is no myth about the development of late developing countries. They all need to work hard to tap their potential and cannot rely entirely on external forces. Moreover, there is no warmth in the relations between major countries. The recognition of rules and values can make the realization of their own interests more smooth and efficient, but it cannot replace the exchange of interests itself. With the development of India, the relationship between India and the West will become more complex. (The author is director and professor of the South Asia Research Center of Fudan University)</p></section></article> one trillion and seven hundred and sixteen billion one hundred and forty-eight million fifteen thousand five hundred and forty-seven Copyrighted works of Globegroup are strictly prohibited from being reproduced or mirrored without written authorization. Violators will be investigated for legal responsibility. Editor in charge: Zhao Jiandong Global Times one trillion and seven hundred and sixteen billion one hundred and forty-eight million fifteen thousand five hundred and forty-seven one one []