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They will be set up in Beijing and Bengaluru.

China and India are establishing two sister cultural parks — in Beijing and Bengaluru — to boost the soft power content in, and impart a holistic dimension to, a rapidly evolving relationship.

Dana Schuppert, founder of the Beijing-based 21st Century China India Centre for Culture and Communication, is the driving force behind the initiative. Fully backed by the Chinese government, the concept of setting up large-scale cultural hubs flows from the Joint Statement signed during President Xi Jinping’s visit to India last September.

“My point was, if we can have big industrial parks, why not also establish large cultural and educational parks,” said Dr. Schuppert during an exclusive interview with The Hindu. She said Buddhist studies would be part of the curriculum at the park at Beijing Normal University. “Land has already been allocated at Beijing Normal University. An Indian hotel and a convention centre would be established, within a zone where knowledge of Sanskrit, Ayurveda, Vivekananda and Yoga would be imparted.”

At the Bengaluru centre, a railway college will be set up.

‘It is a Buddhist renaissance in China’

With China and India ready to inject a cultural vigour to their bilateral ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on soft power dovetails completely with China’s remarkable ongoing cultural renaissance, says Dana Schuppert, who is the driving force behind the initiative of setting up two sister cultural parks in Beijing and Bengaluru.

“The cultural renaissance that we are experiencing under President Xi [Jinping] is a great Buddhist renaissance. Buddhism is number one together with Confucianism and Taoism. These are three schools of thought that shape the Chinese mindset. The distance this country has travelled from the trauma of the Cultural Revolution is unbelievable,” she said in an exclusive interview with The Hindu.

She stressed that Mr. Modi’s arrival was perfectly timed as the Chinese leadership had taken a “strategic decision” to transform its relationship with India. “It is indeed a transformational moment. I can only say time and again that President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang are committed to improving the China-India relations. It is evident in the article that President Xi wrote in The Hindu that it would be his historical contribution to improve the quality of the relations between India and China.”

Dr. Schuppert is confident that the decision of the External Affairs Ministry to reinforce Buddhism as part of its foreign policy toolkit would yield tangible results. “I think this is for the first time that something like this is happening. It sends a fantastic signal,” she said.

Having observed China’s remarkable turnaround up-close during the 23 years that she has lived in the country, Dr. Schuppert has little doubt that the Chinese leadership would be able to achieve a seamless synthesis of Marxism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism.

Asked to comment on the status of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor, Dr. Schuppert said the project was still at a “study stage”.

“There is really no one to push it in the right way and make a reality out of it. Without wanting to generalise, I can say time and again that follow-up, feedback, check-and-balance mechanisms in a continuous regular way are the keys to turn these wonderful ideas into reality.”

Apart from Yunnan, which is the starting point of the BCIM, closer ties between Chengdu — already declared a sister city of Bengaluru — and India should be established at the earliest.

“We created the China-India forum with the support of the Chengdu government. Chengdu is one of the centres of the future, and the government there has a very entrepreneurial attitude, which is evident from the annual presence there of the world’s Fortune 500 companies for three years in a row.”

Stage set for Modi-Xi Jinping talks

The Prime Minister’s presence at the Terracotta Museum - the first stop evoking China’s civilizational roots - set the tone for Narendra Modi’s visit to China, which is expected to be strong on unveiling India’s historical connect with the Middle Kingdom, before the business end of the visit commences later in the evening.

“Not an ordinary city. Not an ordinary welcome,” tweeted Vikas Swarup, the foreign office spokesperson, soon after the Prime Minister landed in Xian on Thursday — a city known as the starting point of the ancient Silk Road. The foreign office later described the Prime Minister’s walk around at pit-2 within the Terracotta Army Museum as a “Face to face with history”.

Within a few hours, the Prime Minister was, accompanied by President Xi Jinping at the Wild Goose Pagoda, the emblem of China’s umbilical ties with India. The Pagoda is dedicated to Xuan Zeng, the Chinese traveler and monk, whose 17 years in India, enriched Buddhism in China.

The visit, which showed China and India had copious reserves of soft power set the tone for the Prime Minster’s talks with Mr. Xi later in the evening.

Unlike previous occasions, India’s border dispute with China was unlikely to be the highlight of the talks. That track has been compartmentalised in the dialogue among the Special Representatives of the two countries. However, highly placed sources told The Hindu, that both countries are committed to ensure that the borders remain calm, and China-Indian ties on the economic and geopolitical tracks are not sidetracked. The sources said that Indian and Chinese local commanders will soon be able to dialogue with each other at Kibithu, in the eastern sector. Political clearance has also been obtained for a hotline between the two army headquarters.

But the Indian side is looking for a deeper collaboration in infrastructure development especially railways. The feasibility study on the Delhi-Chennai high-speed has commenced, but a big ticket announcement on possible Chinese participation on this project is still far away.

“We are looking for Chinese support on skill development, either in railways or training of Indian workers who can then have the know-how to handle the state-of –of the art equipment that would be used within the Make-in-India framework,” said a diplomat by way of background. India is also looking for a major Chinese contribution in clean energy, to help fulfill the target of 100,000 MWs of renewable energy by 2022.

The sources pointed out that China and India are still not on the same page on Beijing’s “belt and road” initiative to integrate the economics of Eurasia. Yet a conversation on this topic is expected when the two leaders meet. As of now India is ready to work together with China on specific projects within the “road and belt “framework including the Bangladesh –China-India-Myanmar economic corridor.

The two countries are also aligned on creating a new global financial architecture, manifested by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is expected to contribute to the development of infrastructure in Asia. The Chinese are also the key players in the development of the proposed development bank steered by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which India is expected to join later this year.