'I don't think the Chinese want to invade India'

After his speech, Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai was treated like a rock star by his entourage. Isn't that unusual for a Chinese leader?

I think people who listened to what he said there thought this guy has some balls.

Usually they get up and read a boring technical speech. But he gave an impassioned speech about the way his government is governing the country. And I believe the audience went along with him. Including a lot of Indians who are very frustrated by your own democracy.

Democracy is a great system, but it's not perfect. You have a lot or problems, and so does America.

When you have a democracy that allows vocal minorities and extreme elements to control politics and stop progress for everybody else, is democracy performing the job its supposed to perform?

Put yourself in the role of a Chinese official today, when America says we want you to have a democracy like ours. What has American democracy become? It's a democracy which is media driven, by big money. To get elected, you come up with issues that divide the population and pit them against each other. Like gay marriage, abortion, and all of that. You don't discuss the real issues like education and healthcare and other things that the country needs. And now we are asking the Chinese to adopt this system?

China is holding as tight as it can to its population for as long as it can to get them as rich as it can before it gets inefficient and effectively chaotic, which it will be when they get a large middle class. So they are brutal about stepping on people who get in the way because they are concentrated on making the place prosperous for a majority of the Chinese people.

I think Chinese officials get up in the morning and say 'I got a lot of problems to fix, and I'm going to work on them'. And that 'To Do' list is long as hell.

American politicians get up in the morning and say, 'How do I kill a Republican today?' or 'How do I kill a Democrat today?'

We've lost our way in having people to focus on what's good for the country. Part of is due to the gerrymandering and also the money raising. If you run for political office in America today, you spend more than half your time in raising money. And that's a degrading experience. Making thousands of phone calls, saying 'Can I have $500?' to everybody you ever went to school with. How degrading is that? What has that got to do with somebody who ought be a statesman and visionary and lead the country?

We have to forget our arrogance about democracy for some time. The only way that we can make China be democratic is to make our democracy so good that they want to copy it. We should lead by example, not by wagging our fingers and saying we've something they don't.

(US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice has asked China why it needs so many weapons. Is it a sign that America is feeling insecure about China's military growth?

There are two things about China's military build up. One is why not? You are a big country. Your military at the beginning of 1990s was a couple of million peasants with a rifle and tennis shoes. They didn't have technology. And then they saw the Gulf War, where America was sending guided missiles through windows and down smokestacks, and they said 'Oh shit! we've got to do something' and they turned their complete focus on that. They got rid of a million soldiers and put their money into technology, and why not?

They are a big country. Why do they not have the right to have a military when America has the right to have a military? It doesn't mean if they have a military they are going to go out and conquer the world.

This is a country that was colonised and exploited by many people for over 200 years. The dangerous side of the military growth is the missile buildup opposite Taiwan. And that is where America and the rest of the world has a genuine complaint.

I don't think we should be complaining about their military buildup. We should complain about the missiles across from Taiwan. Because that is a destabilising element for the world. I don't think a strong Chinese military is destabilising.

I don't think they want to invade India, I don't believe they want to invade Russia. India has got a hell of a military and aircraft carriers and modern weapons, why shouldn't China? It doesn't mean you are going to fight each other.

Image: Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xi Lai greets Deputy Chairman of India's Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia at the Asia Society conference in Mumbai as Asia Society President Dr Vishakha Desai looks on. After delivering his speech at the conference, Bo -- one of the Communist Party's stars -- was asked by Mary E Kissel, the editorial page editor at The Wall Street Journal Asia during the question and answer session that followed his address if China could not learn from the rule of law and democracy in India.

"Democracy is a process, and not the ultimate goal," Bo thundered as the 200-member Chinese delegation applauded. China's main emphasis, he said, was to raise the standard of living of its people, to reduce poverty. Bo urged the audience to take a pragmatic look at democracy, which he said was defined differently by the developed and developing countries.

Photograph: Jewella C Miranda