After the blocking of 59 Chinese mobile applications, how far will India go?

Text by: Sébastien Farcis Follow

India announced on Monday June 29 the blocking of 59 Chinese mobile applications, including the famous social network TikTok, very popular in the subcontinent. New Delhi wants to prevent this software from stealing data from Indian users. This measure is also part of a broader desire by the authorities to boycott Chinese products, particularly technological ones. A boycott that comes while the two countries are on the warpath, two weeks after their worst military confrontation in half a century, which claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers.

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From our correspondent in New Delhi,

New Delhi affirms this Thursday: this blockage has a security objective. These Chinese applications would be a strategic gateway to India and a way for Beijing to collect millions of data from Indian users. In fact, all applications, and particularly American ones like Facebook or Instagram, capture a considerable amount of personal data, which they send back to their own country.

But the difference is that in China, the separation between the private and the public, between the civilian and the military, is increasingly tenuous. Beijing can therefore force these Chinese companies to share the Indian data they collect. And use them for military purposes. However, the TikTok social network had, until Monday, more than 120 million users in India, its largest market outside of China. According to specialized firm App Annie, the 59 blocked applications were used by 505 million people in India in April. The risk is potentially significant, while the armies of the two Asian giants are still on war in the Himalayas.

► Read also: After the deadly clashes with China, calls for boycott are increasing in India

5G in sight

Indian authorities are now targeting Chinese telecommunications companies, which were to participate in the installation of 5G mobile phone technology. This is the main question: should we use the giant Huawei, certainly at the forefront of 5G, but which is close to the Communist Party and the Chinese army? It's a debate that is raging around the world and that affects India closely now: Huawei was to participate in tenders for 5G in the country.

There is no longer any question of it now: New Delhi plans to exclude all Chinese companies from public contracts, whether in road or communications infrastructure. For 5G, India can either invoke national security clauses or make Indian operators understand that they are exposed to regulatory problems if they use Huawei technology.

20% of telecom equipment supplied by the Chinese Huawei and ZTE

However, this will be difficult to apply in India. Indeed, the installation of 5G technology will mainly be done by updating the software, and most of the infrastructure will be that already installed for 4G. However, in India,
unlike the United States, 20% of this communication equipment is already supplied by Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom flagship. According to a senior source in the sector, it will be very difficult and very expensive to replace these facilities. And it may therefore be that 5G is done in India with this Chinese equipment, at least until it needs to be replaced, in eight or nine years.

► To listen: Tensions between China and India: the reflection of a very deep rivalry between the two countries

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