Beijing, Jun 21: The Chinese media continues to betray its restraint at the increasing popularity of the “boycott Chinese products” movement in India, with an editorial in the state-run ‘Global Times’ on Sunday warning that boycott of Chinese goods would hamper the bilateral relations between the two countries.
While a section of the Indian media has been critical about China in the wake of the June 15 border clashes between the Indian Army soldiers and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers, with some even calling for a military response to the Chinese aggression, China’s state-controlled media has been very measured in its reporting and taken care not to escalate the situation.
However, several editorial pieces in the ‘Global Times’ have written about the movement calling for boycott of Chinese goods in India. A latest editorial titled ‘India’s boycott of Chinese products, mobile apps to sour relations’ published on June 21, has conceded that the boycott movement is already having a negative impact on Chinese business prospects in India.
The article quoted a Chinese market analyst as saying that boycott of Chinese goods has already become a ‘social phenomenon’ in India, which would hamper the expansion in the market of Chinese products, and also conceded that the data privacy concerns that have been raised about Chinese apps, would hurt the market for apps such as Tik Tok and WeChat.
It also noted that the ‘Remove China Apps’ software has already had a negative impact on Chinese businesses that were planning to enter the Indian market.
The article expressed hope that the negative impact on Chinese products does not last long as the same are providing customer-oriented services to the Indian public at affordable prices.
Quoting an expert from Tsinghua University, the article argued that targeting Chinese products and apps will sour the China-Indian relations further and claimed that the Chinese investment in India is crucial to the latter’s startup ecosystem, which may be jeopardised due to boycott calls.
The article said that 18 of India’s 30 unicorn companies (privately held startup company valued at over one billion dollar) have been funded by China.
Articles critical of the boycott movement have been a regular feature in the Chinese media, with some analysing that India should deepen its economic co-operation with China, so that mutual interdependence mitigates the chances of conflict, while some others take the line that India is gaining from Chinese investment in India and its technology.
