China, Japan and India each has a population of over 100 million, and last year their gross domestic product (GDP) was US$1.4 trillion, US$4.3 trillion, and US$500 billion, respectively.

In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), India's GDP is only behind that of Japan and China in Asia.

The three Asian giants, if determined to strengthen trilateral strategic cooperation and coordination, will not only greatly promote their self-development but contribute to the boom of Asia.

In terms of economic and technological altitude, it is one of China's main ambitions to realize full industrialization within the first 20 years of this century. At the same time, the country has drawn up a new industrialization model in which that goal will be pursued through informationization.

Japan has already realized full industrialization. The nation is also taking a global lead in a variety of important industrial fields and in the information industry as well.

India possesses overwhelming advantages over its competitors in the software industry, and boasts the favorable condition of boosting manufacturing capacity by means of its cheap labor forces. But its manufacturing industry has obviously stayed at a different position from that of China.

The total GDP of China, Japan and India exceeds US$6 trillion, or about 20 percent of the world's total. But there exists a relatively huge gap between the three countries' per capita GDP, which means they have the potential of constituting the largest and a most multi-dimensional market on the planet.

China and India are both much larger than Japan in terms of territory and population, while the densely populated island nation owns a higher quality of labor forces than the other two. But Japan is facing an extremely serious problem of population shortage and ageing.

China possesses a generally higher-quality labor force than India, but will also be confronted with an ageing population in the near future.

India, however, has no such pressing problems at present or in the foreseeable future. By 2020, 47 percent of the Indian population will be between the age of 15 and 59 -- an impressive increase over the current 35 percent. By that time, it will be the country with the largest working and consuming population in the world.

That will possibly serve as an important element for New Delhi to maintain a relatively fast economic growth in the future, and should also increase the possibility of China, Japan and India becoming more economically complementary.

China is a close neighbor not only to Japan but also to India. The latter two, though geographically distant, have nonetheless enjoyed inseparable links and exchanges. India lies at the middle of Japan's frequently used maritime passage through the Indian Ocean.

Compared to others, the three nations enjoy more obvious geographic advantages in pursuing and strengthening economic exchanges.

There is an enormous potential for China, Japan and India to carry out economic cooperation. Japan's plentiful financial and technological resources can be a great advantage for the development of China and India.

Compared with the fruitful trade between China and Japan, which amounted to US$130 billion in 2003, Beijing and New Delhi have much space for expansion of bilateral trade, which stood at a mere US$7.6 billion last year.

China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have already actively carried out exchanges and cooperation in the field of the information industry. India, a software manufacturing power, should be brought on board to advance the ongoing trilateral cooperation in this field into a quadruple one.

The trilateral political ties between China, Japan and India are generally smooth despite the kind of problems and frictions that exist in every bilateral relationship. But those problems and frictions exactly underline why the three countries should develop a common trilateral cooperative platform to improve bilateral relationships.

Former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said as early as in 1937 that the problems facing India and China are global problems as well.

He also said the way the two countries develop would bear a great significance on the whole world, and thus the two countries should establish and strengthen mutual understanding and trust.

Nehru's words are still applicable to current China, Japan and India. They badly need mutual understanding and trust given that many future problems should be commonly decided by the three countries.

To safeguard maritime transportation will become an outstanding part for the trilateral strategic cooperation between the three countries.

China and Japan are both heavily dependent upon the Middle East for petroleum import, while the Indian Ocean serves as a pivotal link between Atlantic and Pacific for traffic and petroleum transportation.

Geographically, India stretches deep into the Indian Ocean for 1,600 kilometers, thus grasping an important strategic stronghold.

While trying to remain in harmony with the United States, the world's only superpower, the three Asian powers should avoid being plunged into the lose-lose embarrassment of mutual vigilance on each other on the issue of marine traffic security.

It is also a necessary strategic choice for the three countries to join hands to deal with such emerging non-traditional threats as terrorism and piracy.

None of the three countries should hold the idea of uniting with one party to contain another or uniting with a non-Asian superpower to contain and encompass another.

It is reasonable that China, Japan, and India attach importance to developing good relations with Washington, but they should not underestimate their trilateral relationship. Any party should not subordinate itself to acting as a chessman for a non-Asian superpower to contain others. For example, Tokyo should not target its military alliance with Washington against Beijing.

The three nations all value ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and have exhibited strong desires to set up a free trade zone with ASEAN. But they should conduct a benign and healthy competition aimed at making friends with the regional organization.

China and India are both countries with an ancient civilization. Thus, they should, together with Japan, mutually strengthen the feelings bonded by glorifying oriental civilization.

(China Daily May 19, 2004)