The Indian government earlier this week banned a number of Chinese application and services in the country among which is Tik Tok and 59 others but this isn’t a pleasant news to the Chinese government as Ji Rong, who is a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India said that China “fimrly opposed” the decision as it’s a violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules .
The ban was announced on Monday when the Indian government laid siege on 59 mobile applications which includes popular services such as Tik Tok, Helo and WeChat alleging that they are threats to the country’s “sovereignty and security”.
Much of the application which are majorly service-centered and used by millions were all banned. Among them also includes ShareIT, IC Browser, CamScanner, Shein and Club Factory which were all axed under the Section 69A of the Information Technology Act since Monday, 29th of June.
With Tik Tok banned in India, that would mean the company continues to face the threat of getting banned in more regions as it’s been earlier reported to be among some applications which saves user’s data without permission.
Ji Rong stated that “We expect India acknowledges the mutually beneficial nature of China-India economic and trade cooperation, and urge the Indian side to change its discriminatory practices, maintain the momentum of China-India economic and trade cooperation, treat all investments and service providers equally, and create an open, fair and just business environment while bearing in mind the fundamental interests of both sides and the overall interests of bilateral relations.”
The relationship between India and China had been turning sower over the last couple of months which had led to numerous conspiracy theories over trade dispute and other nationalistic and political differences leading to the dispute.
Notably, the ban arrives shortly after recent military clashes along the Indo-Chinese borders. Friction has been increasing in the region and recent casualties have stirred anti-Chinese sentiments in the country.
The Indian government on the other hand claimed that these applications are engaged in activities which are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.” To simplify the allegations, the applications and services are said to pose a big risks on the citizens of India in regards to data security and privacy.
This had always been the argument as well as opposition to Chinese-based companies as they’re usually alleged to pose high security issues to the users whereby Chinese government could spy through those services on the citizens.
That was the main reason why Huawei got banned in the U.S. and other countries as well and this allegation had been denied multiple times by the affected company but as things goes now, India which has the second largest mobile users in the world might is also axing off Chinese services which would affect the reach of these services by far.
