Unlike in 1989, India cannot and does not filter the Indian media’s coverage of China. That is not of great help though. Many of us will continue to get the Chinese names wrong; our political classes have no contact with the Party elite in China; there are few direct flights between Delhi and Beijing; and our civil societies remain disconnected as ever. Although trade between the two countries has boomed, there is no corresponding increase in the contributions of our corporate sector towards our collective understanding of China.

Twenty years after Tiananmen, China has changed unrecognisably. And its weight in the international system has expanded rapidly. What has not changed much is India’s deep ignorance about China.

Whatever the choice we might eventually make on China — emulate, befriend, or balance — we need to invest and generate the national capacity to understand what makes the great civilisation next door tick.

The writer is a professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore express@expressindia.com