India must stop targeting Chinese apps

On Tuesday India once again played an old trick of diverting public attention from domestic problems. The ministry of electronic and information technology announced it was blocking 43 apps including Alibaba Workbench, AliExpress, Alipay Cashier, CamCard and WeDate.

Such a move, following its bans of 59 Chinese apps in June and another 118 in September, can do nothing good. It only sends a signal that India is resorting to shifting public attention instead of truly resolving its domestic problems of invalid pandemic control and economic recession.

With more than 9.17 million confirmed novel coronavirus infections and over 134,000 deaths, as well as an economic contraction of over 23 percent in April to June, the Indian government should have focused on improving pandemic control and facilitating economic recovery rather than fueling the frictions with China.

Multilateral cooperation is vital to achieve such goals. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the virtual BRICS summit last week, India is a firm supporter of multilateralism and is firmly committed to the values of the United Nations. The Indian government should take action to match these words. The digital economy will play a key role in effectively controlling the virus and stimulating growth. India’s latest app ban, will not only ruin the momentum to manage the tensions after the defense ministers’ meeting in September and the BRICS summit last week, but also undermine its own efforts to promote the growth of its digital economy.

What the Indian government needs to do is to take concrete action to tackle its own problems, rather than stoking nationalism by targeting Chinese apps with the excuse it is safeguarding information security.

By doing so, India will also cast a shadow on its investment environment. The app bans will raise doubts about its sincerity in treating foreign companies fairly.

After the 15 Asia-Pacific economies inked the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement on Nov 15, many worry about India’s trade future as India decided not to join the world’s largest free trade bloc. For its own sake, India needs to display it is sincere about opening up its economy.

The bans targeting Chinese apps undoubtedly will deal a blow to investors’ confidence on India’s soil. So the policy to keep targeting foreign apps will make the Indian government face more challenges in the future.

India needs to stop such app bans which hurt both.

The author is a writer with China Daily.