With COVID-19 posing a rising threat to India, how does the country react with limited medical rescue capacity and resources? What has been done to stem economic fallout? And after 70 years of diplomatic relations, how is the China-India relationship developing?

Swaran Singh, a professor from the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, has said that due to limited capacity of testing, India's known number of infected people is "limited." Maybe when India tests more, the number would go up. Keeping numbers low is India's primary goal so that the pandemic does not overwhelm the health sector. At the same time, India is "lucky" because it is a "latecomer" to the pandemic, and it can learn from other countries such as China.

He further said that each country had adopted its own unique strategy in addressing this pandemic. "India's strategy" is to make sure the country does not panic and to focus more on hot spots of the pandemic. The entire effort, as epidemiologists are saying, is to flatten the curve of confirmed cases. Even though there's a certain amount of panic in India where some people are rushing home, that's, in effect, a very limited amount if we look at the entire country.

Economically speaking, he mentioned that a very large number of support mechanisms have been put into use to support the poor population in India. The biggest one is a rural employment guarantee program that is supposed to provide 100 days of employment to the entire rural population.

Professor Zhang Jiadong from Fudan University said he believes India's 21-day lockdown is necessary, although it will face lots of challenges. What's more, the Indian government should have much more communication and engagement with people so that people can understand what the government is doing.

China has provided humanitarian assistance by providing masks, testing kits and protective suits to many countries. Charity foundations, such as the Jack Ma Foundation, have also donated medical materials to India. Nonetheless, there's an accusation that China is engaging "mask diplomacy."

Swaran Singh held that China's help should be seen in a positive light. Now, is the time to focus on how to save human lives, instead of politicizing who is helping for what motives.

Zhang said China's aid is not mask diplomacy. Two months ago, the world was supporting China, and now China is supporting the world. He said, currently, China is engaged in international cooperation and communication in the fight against humankind's common enemy.

China-India diplomatic relations stretch back seven decades, but the historical ties can be traced to thousands of years.

Noting that China-India relations are currently "stable and sustainable," Zhang said in the future, the bilateral relationship would be much more important. However, the size of people-to-people exchange between these two countries is rather small.

Einar Tangen, an independent current affairs commentator, said the United States sees rising China as a threat and has therefore expressed its desire to use India as a "doorstop" to any kind of Chinese expansion, which puts things at a very difficult level. He also said India is sometimes "passive-aggressive" about China's growth. 

It was way ahead of China in 40 or 50 years ago, while today China is way ahead of India. However, these things have to be put aside. China and India are the largest markets becoming increasingly important in today's economy, Tangen said.

"If without these (two markets), Europe can't grow, the U.S. can't grow, no one's going to sell these materials, so developing these markets and the consumers in them is to the mutual benefit of these countries and also the world. Unfortunately, the politics get in the way," he said.

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