An article in China’s state-owned newspaper The Global Times has said New Delhi can only “bark” about the growing trade deficit between the two countries and do nothing. The article comes in the backdrop of growing clamour for boycott of Chinese products on Indian social media platforms.
New Delhi or the Indian government has not made any statement about boycotting Chinese products. In fact, China is India’s biggest trading partner, and experts feel that a further growth in trade between the two countries is significant for the Indian economy.
However, anti-China sentiment has pervaded social media platforms in India over China’s repeated blockade to India’s efforts to get Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar designated a terrorist by the United Nations.
The article in the Global Times said that the call for boycott of Chinese goods on Indian social media is “rabble rousing” as Indian products cannot compete with those of China.
“There has been a lot of talk recently in the Indian media as well as on social media about boycotting Chinese products. It’s just rabble rousing,” the article said. It further said that Indian manufacturing cannot compete at all with Chinese products, for various reasons.
Underlining high corruption in India, the article also warned Chinese companies not to invest in the country as it would be “suicidal” to put money in a country where corruption is high and the workforce is not hard working.
It also argued with its own logic behind the prevalent corruption in India and said: “India has enough money but the majority of it is concentrated with politicians, bureaucrats and a few crony capitalists. Indian elites don’t want to spend funds available in the country, which in reality is the taxpayers’ money but is utilized by the Indian establishment for its own personal consumption. Because of this, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started impractical schemes like ‘Make in India’. The reason is that the Indian establishment wants foreign companies to invest in the country.”
“It would be completely suicidal for Chinese companies to put their money in India by starting manufacturing projects there. The labour class in India is not very hard working or efficient,” it asserted.
India’s trade deficit with China is huge and it has only widened every year. As per data available on the website of the Department of Commerce, India’s imports from China accounted for over 16 percent of country’s total import in 2015-16. India imported goods worth $61.7 billion from China last fiscal year, while its export value was just $9.05 billion.
