FT story on the consistent issue with China: it wants into your markets but ultimately shuts you of its own.
So China pushes India to let telecom equipment giant Huawei into its big market and yet Indian outsourcers are largely shut out of what should be the lucrative Chinese market. The frustration leads the Indian industry to speak more of Latin America as the future booming market rather than China, which, like Japan, remains difficult to penetrate.
With Japan, Indian outsourcers detect a "lack of urgency to innovate," whereas in China, the biggest hurdle is the language barrier for an industry that thrives largely on using English--along with the usual complaints about dealing with state-influenced enterprises.
So India's commerce ministry is pushing China to open up more in this industry.
Western companies that have done well in China's service sector say you have to indigenize the workforce to succeed, something Indian outsourcing companies are apparently less willing to do.
What I see here: The world's two biggest rising economies are so amazingly different in structure and temperament, and yet everybody, including top players on both sides, are determined to foster more linkages out of the fear that zero-sum competition between them would ruin both.
I know a lot of experts spot a ton of friction in this relationship; I'm just amazed at how much effort is being made on both sides to smooth things over wherever possible. I mean, compared to part periods where rising rivals endured such dynamics, this thing has gone amazingly smoothly to date.