"Chinese economy has gone through a massive transformation in the last thirty years and the socialist economy during the Mao Zedong reign has been radically changed to a pro capitalist economy," Lin, an economist at the London School of Economics said speaking at the Sarat Kumar Bose Lecture 2008 at Netaji Bhawan here.

China in the post Mao reign opened up the economy allowing multi-nationals to use human resources to meet their demands, which was a mistake, he said.

"We cannot allow our human resource to be used as cheap labour because this in turn will hamper the development of the country," Lin said.

Drawing a comparison between Indian economy and that of China, Lin said "Both the countries have large populations and we should see to it so that the population is considered a resource and not a burden."

"India is also going through a transformation but should not make the same mistakes. The transformation should not be so radical that it hampers the basic fabric of society," Lin said.