New Delhi: A violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh this month that resulted in death of 20 Indian Army soldiers has put the spotlight on the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including trade and investment.
Even before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and the border clash between the two Asian giants, experts have warned of the risk of ever-growing influence of Chinese companies in India’s tech space. China’s strategic investment in data-oriented services in India raises concerns, said a report prepared by Mumbai based foreign policy think tank – the Gateway House.
While drawing a parallel between Chinese tech giants and Pakistan Army's Border Action Teams (BATs), that are notorious for gruesome killing of Indian soldiers in Jammu & Kashmir, experts warned of investments made by global tech giants such as Alibaba which is led by legendary Chinese entrepreneur and investor Jack Ma.
The investments made by China’s BAT companies, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, in India’s soft power sectors like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and Fintech space is alarming because of the symbiotic relationship of these companies with Chinese Communist Party, said a report by the Gateway House.
These companies are global giants with international operations and listed in the US stock markets. While Alibaba and Baidu are listed in the US stock markets, Tencent is listed in Hong Kong stock exchange.
Experts warn about the deep penetration of these tech giants in India’s tech and startup sector.
“The promoter is a Chinese person so the problem is when to say it is not a Chinese company and at what point it becomes Chinese,” said Amit Bhandari, an expert with Gateway House.
“Frankly, it's better to be careful,” he told ETV Bharat.
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A full 50% of top app downloads (iOS and Google Play) in India in 2018 were those with Chinese investments, such as UC Browser, SHAREit, TikTok, and Vigo Video, among others, said a report by the Gateway House citing the State of Mobile in 2019 report prepared by App Annie.
Such Chinese apps harvest more than normal amounts of data, as compared to other social media apps, thereby posing security concerns for India,” said the report.
The report also highlights the risk of joining eco-system of these Chinese tech giants as they encourage Indian startups and tech companies to use their servers, payment gateway and a host of other services.
“If any data is going through servers in China then you can assume that it can be disclosed to Chinese government,” Amit Bhandari noted.
“It has been kind of whispered for long that data is not safe at all,” he said.
Chinese apps such as UC Browser, SHAREit, TikTok, and Vigo Video among others harvest more than normal amounts of data, as compared to other social media apps, thereby posing security concerns for India, said the Gateway House study while citing research done by other stakeholders.
Amit says these Chinese tech companies and Chinese Apps work in a completely opaque regime.
“Everyone wants to know everything on your phone, so that's a problem,” he told ETV Bharat.
(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)
