China opposes India's ban on apps, says it flouted WTO rules

Beijing on Tuesday “firmly opposed” India’s move to ban the use of 59 apps linked to China, stating that New Delhi abused the “national security exception” to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in New Delhi expressed serious concerns over the ban imposed by the Government of India. It stated that the ban “selectively and discriminatorily” targeted the apps developed by the companies based in the communist country on “ambiguous and far-fetched grounds”. Beijing said that it expected India to acknowledge “the mutually beneficial nature of China-India economic and trade cooperation”.

New Delhi’s move came amid continuing military stand-off along the disputed India-China boundary in eastern Ladakh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stated that the apps had been used in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”.

Beijing said that the ban imposed by New Delhi would affect not only the employment of Indians, who provided support services for the apps but also the “interests of the users” and livelihood of “many creators and entrepreneurs”.

“China is strongly concerned, and we are verifying the situation,” Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government, told journalists in Beijing on Tuesday. He also said that New Delhi had “a responsibility to safeguard the interests” of China’s companies in India.

The apps New Delhi banned on Tuesday included TikTok and WeChat, owned by ByteDance Limited and Tencent Holdings Limited of China.

Ji Rong, the spokesperson of the PRC’s embassy in New Delhi, stated that India’s ban on the apps developed by the companies based in China ran against “fair and transparent procedure requirements” and abused “national security exceptions” to its WTO obligations. “It also went against the general trend of international trade and e-commerce and was not conducive to consumer interests and the market competition in India,” she said in a statement issued in New Delhi on Tuesday.

New Delhi cited “raging concerns” on “data security” and the “privacy” of 130 crore Indians to justify its move to ban the apps, albeit without publicly linking it with the stand-off along the disputed India-China boundary.

The Ministry of Information Technology noted that it had received many complaints about misuse of some mobile apps for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting data of users in an unauthorized manner to servers located outside India. The compilation of such data, mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of the nation ultimately impinged upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, it noted.

China, however, stated that the apps had a large number of users in India. The apps had been operating strictly in accordance with laws and regulations of India and provided “efficient and fast services” for consumers, creators and entrepreneurs.

It urged New Delhi to change its discriminatory practices, maintain the momentum of China-India economic and trade cooperation, treat all investments and service providers equally and create an open, fair and just business environment, “while bearing in mind the fundamental interests of both sides and the overall interests of bilateral relations.”

New Delhi’s move to ban the apps came on Monday, just on the eve of a meeting between senior officials of Indian Army and Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to resolve the more-than-seven-week-long stand-off in eastern Ladakh.

The stand-off took India-China relations to a new low, particularly after the clash at Galwan Valley on the LAC on June 15. The Indian Army lost 20 of its soldiers in the clash. The Chinese PLA also suffered casualties, but did not make public the numbers of its soldiers killed or injured in the violent face-off.