TikTok logos are seen on smartphones in front of a displayed ByteDance logo in this illustration taken Nov. 27, 2019.(Reuters photo)
China has criticized India after it banned dozens more Chinese apps amid the already strained relations between the worlds most populous countries.
The Indian government has already banned more than 200 mostly Chinese apps in recent months including the wildly popular video platform TikTok, but said on Tuesday that it was banning an additional 43 such apps.
"We firmly oppose the Indian sides repeated use of national security as an excuse to prohibit some mobile apps with Chinese background," Ji Rong, spokesperson for Chinas embassy in India, said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, India announced it was banning more Chinese apps which are from Chinas e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA), including shopping platform AliExpress, workplace messaging tool DingTalk and streaming site Taobao Live in addition to dating apps.
"This action was taken based on the inputs regarding these apps for engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order," Indias Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement.
In its response, the Chinese embassy said Beijing has always required Chinese companies operating abroad to comply with international laws and abide by local rules.
Ever since a deadly border clash in June between the two countries, their relations have been frayed.
Twenty Indian soldiers were killed during a skirmish in the Galwan Valley, a precipitous and rocky border area that lies between Chinas Tibet and Indias Ladakh regions. There were no confirmed reports of Chinese casualties. Each side blamed the other for the incident.
India accused Beijing of having "pre-meditated and planned" the fighting, but China said Indian troops had violated a military agreement, and attacked its troops in the Galwan valley in Ladakh.
The governments of the two nuclear armed powers have been seeking to reach an agreement on ways to pull back troops from across the disputed border.
However, negotiations have failed to make progress, and the tensions have spilled over into their trading relationship, worth more than $80 billion.
Many Indians had called for a boycott of Chinese goods and services, particularly from Chinas dominant tech industry.
On Wednesday, Beijing again pushed back on the pressure campaign, urging India "to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international investors, including Chinese companies," a spokesperson for Chinas Foreign Ministry said.
"The Indian side should immediately correct this discriminatory practice, so as to not bring more damage to the cooperation between the two sides," the spokesperson added.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/21174
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