"Though China is ahead of India in many fields today, the future history may not be the same," Chandy said, releasing a book "China Innu" (China today) written by Mathew John, a former IPS officer.
Chandy was also critical of China not reciprocating the same amount of trust that India had in its neighbour under India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
"Nehru wanted India to maintain healthy relations with its neighbours, especially China. He thought such an approach would help India concentrate more on economic progress than the defence sector. But his trust collapsed with China's invasion of India in 1962," Chandy said.
He said China had developed in the last 32 years and its economic growth was a matter of interest for other countries.
"We have many things to study from China in terms of development and economic growth. But growing human rights violation and absence of democracy are something which we cannot follow," he said.
Historian M G S Narayanan said China was more capitalist than America in terms of economy and was following a "dictator-like" attitude in politics.
"China Innu", brought out by Mathrubhumi Books, is the Malayalam translation of 'Dragon Unravelled: A New Perspective on China' by Mathew John.
Former Chief Secretary Dr D Babu Paul and educationist Prof R V G Menon spoke at the function.
