India issued a statement on Tuesday (November 24) banning 43 apps, most of them from China, including Alibaba Group’s AliExress (Global Express). It’s the latest in a string of bans on apps developed by Chinese companies since border clashes erupted between India and China in June.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that it was a new round of cyber sanctions against China.
The Times of India reported that India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said on Tuesday that the ban, issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, involved activities that threatened India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, its defense, national security and public order.
The banned apps from China include AliSuppliers, Alibaba Workbench, Alipay Cashier, and a number of dating apps.
India has also issued a series of bans on Chinese apps in the wake of a domestic boycott campaign against “Made in China” since June’s bloody border clashes in the Ladakh region near the Line of Actual Control. Before Tuesday’s latest ban, India had already imposed bans on more than 170 apps from China.
In June, India announced a ban on 59 Chinese applications, including the international versions of Shakespeare, WeChat, Weibo, Alibaba’s UC News, UC Browser and other Chinese companies’ products. This was followed by Alibaba’s UC Network, which began laying off employees in India.
In September of this year, India banned 118 Chinese mobile apps, saying that the sharing of user data by these apps could pose a threat to India.
In response to India’s ban on Chinese cell phone applications, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said on September 3, China expressed serious concern and resolute opposition to the Indian side’s abuse of the concept of national security to take discriminatory measures against Chinese enterprises, in violation of the relevant WTO specifications, China urged the Indian side to correct the wrong approach.
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