India has banned 118 more China-owned mobile applications on top of 59 previously barred, in a further move to curb Chinese tech companies amid mounting tensions on the two Asian giants’ disputed border.
In a new list released on Wednesday by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, some of China’s most popular apps including e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao, Ant Group’s widely used payment service Alipay, Tencent Holding’s popular game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, and Baidu’s search service were banned.
According to the statement from the ministry, the banned apps are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India” as well as “security and public order.”
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The agency said it received complaints about the apps “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.”
India has also changed rules to limit Chinese investments in Indian companies and tightened scrutiny for visas for Chinese businessmen, academics, industry experts, and advocacy groups.
China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. are set to be kept out of India’s plans to roll out its 5G networks according to Bloomberg.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily briefing in Beijing on Thursday, “the Indian side decided to ban some great and popular Chinese apps.
“Indian users’ rights and interests are first harmed, and Chinese businesses’ rights and interests will also be harmed. So what India has done is not beneficial to anyone.”
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
