India bans 59 apps it says have privacy, national security problems. In a massive coincidence, they’re all Chinese

India has banned the use of 59 smartphone apps it says violate its citizens’ privacy and threaten national security. In a massive coincidence they come from China, and just weeks after border skirmishes between the two nations. The Indian government's announcement of the software banishment said the offending apps “are engaged …

[David 132]

"fist fights"

" fist fights and booby traps"

...is underselling it just a little. Try "clubs bristling with vicious 5" nails", on the Chinese side, not to mention multiple Indian fatalities. Can't say I blame the Indian government for this; if anything, they're being VERY restrained.

Anyway, I'm sure someone will be along in these comments shortly to tell us how this is all the fault of Trump/Brexit/Boris Johnson/the capitalist system, right?

[Mark Exclamation]

Re: "fist fights"

Yep, the rest of the world needs to take notice, support India, and move away from China. It will be difficult (I keep trying to buy non-Chinese-made products but it's almost impossible) but we have to start now. China cannot be trusted by anyone, including those that think they are "friends" or allies. You're only a friend of China for as long as you bow to China's demands.

[W.S.Gosset]

Re: "fist fights"

Something rarely reported is that, over and above being well across and into Indian territory, the Chinese brought a squad 6 times larger than both sides' standard border patrol. Both sides surveil each other continuously so this is well-known.

I.e. yet another passive aggressive piss-take by China.

If you'd wondered why the Indian army seemed to perform so poorly (China's military has been a startlingly poor combat performer in every military action for hundreds of years), consider how well YOU'D do vs 6 guys attacking you unexpectedly with pre-prepared long weapons customised for lethality.

[DavCrav]

Re: "fist fights"

Don't forget that they dammed several rivers, waited for Indian troops to enter the river bed, then unleashed a torrent to drown them. While they were fighting for their lives, they attacked the with nail-encrusted bats, Those they didn't bludgeon to death were pushed off the side of mountains to plummet to their deaths instead.

This wasn't a border skirmish. This was a pre-meditated Chinese government mass murder.

[W.S.Gosset]

Re: "fist fights"

God, I missed that entirely. Thanks.

Just read today: satellite photos show China has already built a number of structures on Indian territory. Same tactic as South China Sea.

ParTICularly damning re long-term plan (rather than their claimed "retaliation") since China recently negotiated with India for both sides to remove all buildings in the area, and India had done so.

There's also "many" thousands of soldiers massing just behind the border; been building up for weeks.

[pradeepvasudev]

Realpolitik

The simple reality is that, like all nations, India will have to handle this alone. America has its own fish to fry (Afghan withdrawal requires Paki cooperation; Pakistan and China tag team on India), the Europeans are lost and pointless, the UK is too involved in its own Brexit underwear and in any case prefer to avoid pissing off big powers, Russia is now equidistant between China and India (though it will be happy to sell all the arms India needs). Its a good thing both sides stuck to the no-firearms agreement or we'd have war by now.

Im sure someone is going to come up with points about how this action has little effect on China, so its all symbolic. But that's the point - symbols serve a purpose and the decision to ban this has come after immense popular pressure on the government.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google will be disappointed

They tried their very best to make sure Chinese apps remained available in India, banning an Indian app that told users if any of their installed apps were related to China. I'm sure it's unrelated to economics :-|

[John Jennings]

TicTok

Having 3 daughters, I can confirm that this app is truly the spawn of satan.

They do their bit to clog up the internet, and 3/4G bandwidth.

[TeeCee]

Tit for tat fail?

India: "You killed our soldiers so we'll ban your apps!"

China: "Er....meh?"

[Raj]

Re: Tit for tat fail?

I realize youre just trying to sound funny using the extent of your limited awareness..The reality is that a lot more is happening.

* [url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-shipments-from-china-are-stuck-at-indian-ports-heres-why-6476135/]Shipments from China stuck at Indian ports as government blocks import clearance[/url], and the Indian government has avoided responding to urgent clearance requests from Beijing.

* [url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/modis-amended-enemy-property-law-gives-jitters-to-china/articleshow/62601031.cms]India amends enemy property law, enables broad confiscation of Chinese investments if war occurs[/url]

* All online shopping portals now required to clearly indicate country of origin. Specific countries (e.g. Vietnam, Thailand) required to furnish additional information of who owns the factory, to curtail Chinese producers using third countries as originator.

India ran a $55 billion trade deficit with China. A large part of Indian exports were intermediate goods, while most of Chinese exports were finished goods. Rather poor trade policy at work on India's part...

... until the Chinese start a war. They then demonstrate that they forget the cardinal rule of a trade imbalance - you don't piss off your third biggest source of a trade surplus (behind the US and EU). You coddle them and get them hooked to your cheap wares. If you piss them off, they can block your exports and blocking THEIR exports doesn't hurt them because they'll just feed that ore and intermediates into their industrial system instead.

This unfortunate war is going to end up costing the Chinese anywhere from $10-40 billion a year in foregone surpluses, going forward.

[Mark Exclamation]

Re: Tit for tat fail?

Thanks, that was very interesting, I had no idea this was going on. The world owes it to support India at this time, and show China they cannot just do whatever they want, whenever they want, against international law.

Waiting for the CCP trolls to vent their spleens.

[Raj]

Re: Tit for tat fail?

The Chinese worship one thing - cold hard cash.

They aren’t always smart - their worldview often predisposes them to make stupid mistakes . Like you don’t piss off the guy you have a $50 billion surplus with. Particularly when the other side exports intermediates to you, If he blocks your exports its benefits him. If you block his exports that also benefits his efforts to replace what you’re exporting to him.

So far the Indian government has avoid saying anything while enacting sweeping bans on everything Chinese. Imports mostly blocked. Apps already stopped working. Huawei/ZTE banned, and more. The Chinese are in the ‘let’s not overreact’ mode and India has no interest in listening . Their misadventures gonna cost them billions and it’s a long way from the final cost.

[W.S.Gosset]

!!! :O TikTok

That tiny casual link intra-story, to Twitter post... Bloody hell!!

Everyone should take 30secs and read it.

One paragraph in particular will have your hair standing up on end. Not just for what it says, but for the country-level implications. Holy. Crap.

https://mobile.twitter.com/d1rtydan/status/1277081198624337920

[RPF]

Re: !!! :O TikTok

Am sharing that far and wide!

[EnviableOne]

mother (nature) will be pleased

the two most populous nations going head to head, no weapons involved, is a great way to decrease the worlds population.

[Sanguma]

Anyone

could see that the next focus of conflict is going to be between India and China. This is just the preliminary skirmish.

Both are huge, both are rising from third-rate positions they were shoved into about a couple of centuries ago, when the European powers were rising. Both are fiercely nationalistic.

And both have long histories and long memories.

Question is, what do we non-Indian, non-Chinese nationals do about it? Take up seats on the sidelines and cheer on our favourite teams? Try to stop things getting any worse? Decide its all none of our business what happens and try to ignore it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm with India on this

Chine is a bully

[crayon]

Given India's nationalistic population (cultivated by the "elite") and Modi's Hindu Nationalist government and past behaviour in the Doklam standoff where India and China had no territorial dispute but India was ostensibly sticking up for Bhutan because they believed the area, in which China at that time was extending a road, was disputed territory that belonged to Bhutan (one could get the feeling that Bhutan was faintly bemused by India's (over re-)actions and Bhutan itself stayed quiet through most of that incident, leaving the Indian side looking rather silly) - it would be hard to believe that this time round had it really been China who initiated hostilities by wandering over the LAC (which itself is not mutually agreed upon) then attacked and killed Indian soldiers that India's reactions would be so mild. So the conclusion is that India escalated the situation and got a bloody nose. As with the Doklam incident, China has gracefully kept quiet, allowing India save face.

India and China have for decades tried to demarcate their borders. The short of it is that India is deluded in sticking to a border treaty that didn't exist, China's proposal that the borders be demarcated based on the LAC - whereby China gets to keep a chunk of territory that they currently control but is claimed by India, and India gets to keep a chunk of territory that they currently control but is claimed by China - is rejected by India because they want both chunks of territory.

Oh, so in May, Nepal protested to India over the opening of a road that it built on Nepalese territory. The territory in question was occupied by India during the 1962 war with China. Apparently a former monarch then formalised the occupation by granting India the use of that land. But in recent years Nepal has been asking for India to return the land to no avail.

[DavCrav]

One side has a God-complex leader of a fiercely nationalistic population, who tries to unleash this nationalism at appropriate targets given even imagined sleights. They have fenced off and isolated the only majority-Muslim region of the country and are slowly stripping it of rights. They have a fawning press that is largely controlled or at least directed by the ruling party. They make up...interesting...rules for commerce designed to champion local firms at the expense of foreign companies.

Sorry, I've forgotten which of the two countries I'm talking about.