After Chinese Apps, India Turns The Lens On Chinese Gadget Makers

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has said that the central government will carefully study the issues related to Chinese telecom gear makers after various countries have alleged that the Chinese have been looking to use their telecom equipment to breach global security.

The development was revealed by Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan at the launch of indigenous semiconductor chipmaker, Signalchip.

Last month, the US Justice Department had charged Chinese telecom firm Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou alleging that the company has been trying to get its hands on trade secrets, obstruct a criminal investigation and evade economic sanctions on Iran.

Other countries such as Australia and New Zealand governments have also supported the US allegations regarding the telecom equipment manufactured by Chinese vendors.

According to reports, not all nations are however convinced about the allegations made by the US government. For instance, Germany has said that it has no plans to bar Huawei from its 5G network.

India has been critical over Chinese products and services for a long time. In December 2017, the Indian Ministry of Defence had directed the Indian armed forces and security personnel to uninstall nearly 42 Chinese mobile applications including MiStore, Wechat and ShareIt, and classified them as “spyware”.

Ongoing Indo-China Trade Tensions

Currently, the popular Chinese social media apps and ecommerce platforms are facing heat from the Indian government.

After the tragic Pulwama terror attack, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) economic wing, Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting a ban on Chinese social media apps, ecommerce platforms and telecom equipment.

In its letter, accessed by Inc42, SJM had accused the Chinese government of continuing to block India’s attempts to designate the chief architect of these terror attacks as a ‘global terrorist’.

SJM also requested the government to prevent Chinese telecom companies from securing 4G and 5G contracts in India and a ban on import of telecom equipment.

Some of the popular social media applications such as TikTok and Helo, which are owned by China’s ByteDance have been under scrutiny as the SJM accused them of carrying undesirable content, and causing a security risk.

In February, it was reported that the central government is also looking to keep a tab on the  Chinese social media apps as it ruled that companies with more than 5 Mn users will need to have an office in the country.

Not only on social media or telecom front, but China has also been under scrutiny due to its popular ecommerce services such as AliExpress, Shein and Club Factory.