West ‘created’ modern China by making it factory of the world, says India’s Rahul Gandhi
The politician said the US and Europe had facilitated China’s ‘coercive production model’, and advised the West to establish a democracy-based manufacturing alternative with IndiaSpeaking at a civil society event, Gandhi said India could not replace Chinese manufacturing, instead proposing a ‘production vision within a democratic environment’IndiaFinbarr BerminghamPublished: 2:00pm, 9 Sep, 2023Why you can trust SCMP
Rahul Gandhi, the Indian opposition figure looking to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the general election next year, has accused the West of “creating” modern-day China by refusing to deal with the “social conflict” of industrial-scale manufacturing.Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Gandhi said the United States and Europe facilitated the rise of China’s “coercive production model”, and that it would be incumbent upon them, in partnership with India, to create a democracy-based alternative in the future.“I think what China has shown everybody is that you can manufacture within a coercive framework in the 21st century, meaning that as long as you have the PLA, you have the instruments of coercion, you can have 100,000 people sitting in a factory, who will produce telephones, shoes, microphones, tables, anything for them,” Gandhi said, referring to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military.
The Congress Party leader said the West decided “30 or 40 years ago” that they did not want to be in the “business of production, and essentially handed over production to the Chinese”.
