The ongoing Chinese military aggression against India has further created a stir in the country. Even as Alphabet Inc's Google took off a mobile application ‘Remove China Apps,’ its instant popularity with over five million downloads shows the growing anti-China sentiments in India. The application, as the name suggested, was aimed at facilitating users delete all phone apps developed in China.
The app had become the top trending free app in India.
“There has been a huge change in the mood of the people, the level of awareness today is like never before and now the support to ‘say no to China’ mentality is at unprecedented levels,” Ashwani Mahajan, national co-convener, Swadeshi Jagran Manch told IN.
Until now, China has been supplying more than 50 per cent of the world’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) requirements used for medicines including antibiotics and lifestyle drugs. However, India is already mulling substantial increase in API production and even revive state-owned firms for the purpose. “Until now, we have not maximized our production capacities. We must do that to ensure that we are self-reliant,” Mahajan said.
Mahajan said that demand for Chinese goods has come down not just in India but the world over.
A few days ago, reformer and educator Sonam Wangchuk, based on whose life Aamir Khan played ‘Rancho’ in the blockbuster 3 Idiots, took to Twitter and asked Indians to boycott Chinese goods in the wake of the recent aggression at the Himalayan border.
“Use your wallet power. #BoycottMadeInChina #SoftwareInAWeekHardwareInAYear to stop Chinese bullying in Ladakh and eventually to liberate the 1.4 billion bonded laborers in China, as also the 10 million Uighur Muslims and 6 million Tibetan Buddhists,” Wangchuk tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">USE YOUR WALLET POWER<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoycottMadeInChina?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoycottMadeInChina</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SoftwareInAWeekHardwareInAYear?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SoftwareInAWeekHardwareInAYear</a> to stop Chinese bullying in Ladakh & eventually to liberate the 1.4 Bn bonded labourers in China, as also the 10 Mn Uighur Muslims & 6 Mn Tibetan Buddhists.
Click this link to play<a href="https://t.co/ICjRQJ2Umf">https://t.co/ICjRQJ2Umf</a> <a href="https://t.co/lpzAXxARPj">pic.twitter.com/lpzAXxARPj</a></p>
— Sonam Wangchuk (@Wangchuk66) <a href="https://twitter.com/Wangchuk66/status/1266037999466250241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Imports of Chinese electronic goods, which have typically been in huge demand in India, have been on the decline in the last couple of years now. Sample this: In 2017-18, imports of electronic goods and IT hardware items from China stood at Rs 2.06 lakh crore, accounting for over 60 per cent of the total inward shipment. In 2018-19, it was Rs 1.59 lakh crore and China’s share dropped to less than 40 per cent. While the full data for 2019-20 is yet to be released, sources said that after the Covid-19 pandemic spread and the military aggression have dented public sentiments in India.
Sources added that the pandemic has also highlighted the need to diversify to avoid any serious supply disruption..
