The demand for boycotting Chinese products is getting louder after 20 Indian Army personnel got martyred in the Galwan valley, Ladakh near the Line of Actual Control in a clash with their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese government has not divulged the details regarding the casualties suffered by them but as per the Indian media and foreign media reports, 35-43 Chinese soldiers have also lost their lives in the clash.

Instant action by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT)

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The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also acted swiftly and came out with a list which has information about more than 500 Chinese products that we Indians can boycott. These products belong from the categories of electronics, kitchen appliances, toys, beauty products, jewelry, domestic alliances, apparel, etc. CAIT claims to be the representative of more than 7 crore traders and 40K Indian associations and it is of strong opinion that if Chinese products are boycotted in a proper manner then the import of Chinese goods will come down by Rs. 1 lakh crore till December 2021.

The Secretary General of CAIT, Praveen Khandelwal also said that they are also talking with the Modi government about the work being carried out by Chinese companies in the Indian infrastructure projects. Praveen also said that the products that they have listed for boycotting can easily be manufactured in India.

Praveen Khandelwal also urged the Bollywood celebs to stop promoting Chinese products and he said that CAIT will approach these celebs in an official manner as well. At the moment, many Indian celebrities are promoting the Chinese products especially the smartphones and other electronic products.

Is it possible?

While boycotting Chinese products in India will definitely harm the Chinese economy to a great extent, the big question that arises is whether it is realistic at the moment as we hugely depend on China for lot of things. Undoubtedly, it will be a little difficult as there is almost no sector in which we don’t rely on China. For example, it is not just in mobile market that China has good presence; in 2019 China’s share in Indian mobile market was 66 percent while Indian agriculture also depends heavily on China as mostly used fertilizers are imported from China. Even the Indian pharma, automobile and beauty market is also heavily dependent on China.

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So, is it really possible for us to boycott all the Chinese products at one go, well it doesn’t seem so as it may sound harsh but it is true that India won’t be able to manufacture all these instantly in order to meet the demands. However, we can use other options, such as start importing these products from other countries, they may cost a little higher but we have to do at least this much for our country and soldiers. Side by side, India should also now focus on increasing its manufacturing capacity so that we can buy Indian products manufactured in India and also export them.

The roots are deeper than we think:

We may shout on the top of our voices to boycott the Chinese products but what about the investments that have been made by China in our businesses. As per a report published by an agency, around $4billion is being invested by China in Indian startups and you will be shocked to know that 92 major companies have been funded by our neighbor. The three Chinese firms which have invested a lot in India are Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent.

Some investments made by Alibaba:

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• Paytm ($400 million),
• Paytm Mall ($150 million)
• Big Basket ($250 million)
• Zomato ($200 million)
• Snapdeal ($700 million).

Some investments made by Tencent Holdings:

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• Flipkart ($300 million)
• Ola ($500 million)
• Byju’s ($50 million)
• Swiggy ($500 million)
• Dream11 ($150 million)
• Hike Messenger ($150 million)

So now even if you purchase a product from Flipkart, book a cab from Ola, order food from Zomato/Swiggy, make payments by Paytm or purchase anything from Paytm Mall, each time you will help a Chinese firm in earning profits.

App market:

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More than 50 percent of the apps which are downloaded in India have Chinese connection, the most popular being TikTok which is owned by ByteDance. Uninstalling the apps won’t be very difficult for most of us but will that be enough?

Routing the investments:

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Recognizing Chinese investments is not so easy as sometimes these Chinese firms use a different route to invest in Indian firms. For example, Alibaba made its investment in Paytm through their Singapore office which is not going to be recognized as Chinese investment but ultimately we all know from where the real money is coming from.

What can we do?

The best we can do at the moment is to shift towards Indian or other alternative brands present in the market to the maximum and increase our manufacturing capacity in order to give tough fight to China.

Here are some of the alternative Indian brands with which we can replace the Chinese brands:

• Sko
• Apparel
• Men
• Bhaane
• Louis Phillipe
• Flying Machine
• Andamen
• Numero Uno
• AND Designs
• Woodland
• Red Chief
• Inc5
• Liberty
• Catwalk
• Mochi
• Khadims
• Franco Leone
• W for Women
• Madame
• DesmondJi
• Solan No. 1
• Electronics
• Godrej
• Voltas
• Symphony
• IFB
• Bombay Selections
• Pantaloons
• Dabur
• Amul
• Emami
• Marico
• Hidesign
• Da Milano
• Baggit
• Lavie
• Lino Perros
• Liquor
• Amrut Single Malt
• Paul John Single Malt
• Officer’s Choice
• Eureka Forbes
• Tata Motors
• Bajaj Auto
• Ashok Leyland
• Force Motors
• Mahindra and Mahindra
• Parle Agro
• Patanjali
• Britannia
• Bajaj Consumer Care
• Wipro Consumer Care
• Micromax
• Karbonn
• Intex
• Lyf
• Lava International
• ITC

Let’s support PM’s initiative of Vocal for Local & boycott Chinese products so that our money is not used against our soldiers.